Are Rental Property Repairs Tax Deductible? What to Track

If you rent out a property, the repairs you pay for are almost always deductible against your rental income. The problem isn't whether you can deduct them — it's whether you can prove them when it counts. Most small landlords lose deductions not because the rules are against them, but because the receipt is in a coat pocket somewhere and the $180 plumber visit from March is now a vague memory.

Repairs are deductible. Improvements are not (this year).

Here's the distinction that trips up almost every new landlord:

• A repair keeps your property in working condition — fixing a leaky faucet, patching drywall, replacing a broken window pane. These are deducted in full, in the year you pay for them.
• An improvement adds value or extends the property's life — a new roof, a kitchen remodel, a new HVAC system. These are capitalized and depreciated over years.

Rule of thumb: are you fixing something back to normal (repair) or upgrading it to better-than-before (improvement)? Misclassifying an improvement as a repair is a common audit trigger — when in doubt, ask your tax preparer, but track everything either way.

What counts as a deductible repair

• Plumbing fixes (leaks, clogs, water-heater repairs)
• Electrical and HVAC repairs and servicing
• Appliance repairs, pest control, lock and key replacement
• Drywall, paint touch-ups, minor carpentry
• Labor you pay a vendor or handyman to perform

If you paid a contractor $600 or more in a year, you may also owe them a 1099-NEC — another reason to track who you paid, not just how much.

What "good records" actually means

If the IRS or your accountant asks, you want to produce four things per repair: the date, the amount, who you paid, and what the work was and which property it was for. A shoebox of receipts technically counts, but it falls apart the moment you have more than one property. The cleanest version ties each expense to the original maintenance request — the tenant's text, the photo, the vendor, and the cost — so a year later the whole story is intact.

A simple system beats a perfect one

You don't need accounting software. You need a habit: log every repair the moment it's done, while you still remember it. That habit is far easier to keep when logging takes ten seconds and lives in the same place as the request.

RentingAuthority was built for exactly this. Tenants text repairs to one number (no app), you dispatch and log the cost right on the request, and everything stays organized by property — for tax time and disputes. It's free for your first property. Create a free account →

This article is general information, not tax advice. Consult a tax professional about your situation.