Taxes for my Duplex - What to claim? - Newer landlord

[Nicholas Zeiler]

Hey folks. This is my second year in an owner occupied double. Great experience so far. I have a question I hope the BP community can give me some insight on. Should I claim all of my expenses on my taxes? 

I ask this because In 2015 I claimed every expense possible and it saved me alot of $$$ on taxes, but in the end it had a negative side effect when applying for another mortgage on an additional property.

 The lender I was working with said that they couldn't count my rental income when determining the mortgage amount I would be eligible for. Basically, my expense deductions for the property were very close in amount to the income, so the property didn't generate much of a profit. As a result it did not increase my annual income and there did not increase the amount I could "afford" to borrow.

Now I am doing taxes again and wonder if I should claim any deductions. By not claiming deductions I could increase my annual income (from a tax perspective obviously) and that would be beneficial as I intend to buy more properties this year.

Any insight is appreciated. Thank you!

*My expenses are much lower currently than my first year of ownership as I had to invest some money on updates when I purchased it.