Do I really have to capitalize a $50 tool?

[Drew Whitson]

I recently purchased a useful tool for use in the care of my five single family homes. Clearly the useful life of this tool requires me to expense the cost of the tool over several years. Do I just tack this to one of the houses and depreciate it over whatever years or should I split it into a $10 asset per property and then depreciate it?

It seems to me that anyone holding properties long-term would end up with dozens and dozens of depreciation schedules over the years for all sorts of things that would be considered "improvements". Thankfully I am savvy in Excel and it is all automated, but doing my taxes each year with so many different things to depreciate takes quite a lot of time.

Any advice? Thanks!