Tax deductions & "Brrrr-ish"

[Christopher Abele]

We purchased a property that requires some rehab and repairs with the intent to use it as a rental. This will be under my personal name (sole proprietorship). 

I had originally thought, "I'll figure out the tax stuff later," however I'm going to be doing a decent amount of the work myself and want to track the expenses related to the property. 

For tax purposes, do you account for the purchase price plus the repairs as part of the "total purchase price" and then depreciate? Or do you depreciate based on the initial purchase price? I'm not sure we'll be doing a cash out refi on this and it is my first rental property. Repairs are likely to come in at about 50% of what we paid for the property initially. 

If anyone has links to posts or explanations on this part of the process it would be greatly appreciated. (Not sure what to throw into the search engine.) 

[Scott Ashworth]

Chris, talk to your CPA. They can tell you what can be expensed and what needs to be capitalized.

What I have done in the past is I create a breakdown of all repairs and the cost associated with them and I give it to my CPA. He then tells me "you can expense xyz" or "this needs to be capitalized." 

Your CPA will keep up with the depreciation schedule for the capitalized items: Roof is x years, while HVAC is y years, and hot water heater is z years.

If you don't have a CPA, that is a good first place to start. And find one that also has investment properties.