Tax Rules for Deductions for Repairs and Maintenance

Sole proprietors, businesses, and rental property owners can deduct expenses for repairs and maintenance of their property and equipment, although the average homeowner can't generally claim a tax deduction for these expenses. The rule for businessowners and landlords is that you can generally deduct amounts paid for repairs and maintenance if the expenses don't have to be capitalized.

Some isolated energy-related tax credits are available for the average homeowner, however.

Routine Repairs and Maintenance vs. Capitalization

"If you repair stuff, you can deduct it," according to Steve Nelson, a certified public accountant who has written extensively about deducting repairs on the Evergreen Small Business blog. "If what you do is considered to be a betterment, a restoration, or an adaptation, the rules say we're going to make you capitalize it and depreciate it unless it's such an amount that it's small potatoes."

According to the IRS, routine maintenance keeps your property in good working condition without increasing its value or prolonging its useful life, and these expenses can be deducted in the year they occur. The IRS defines routine maintenance as something that "keeps your property in a normal efficient operating condition."

Changing the oil in your car would be an example, because it keeps the car operating normally and efficiently. It doesn't necessarily or substantially prolong the useful life of the car.

Capitalizing Repairs: The "BRA" Test

The IRS tightened up the rules for how repairs and maintenance expenses can be deducted back in 2014, but it's still possible to claim these expenses. An expense is generally capitalized and depreciated over several years if it makes equipment better, restores the property to its normal condition, or adapts the property for a new or different use.

One way to remember this concept is the "BRA test," a mnemonic that refers to betterments, restorations, and adaptations.

What Is a Betterment?

As the name suggests, betterments are repairs that are intended to make something better than it was prior to the repairs being made. Repairs fall into this category if they:

• Fix a defect that existed before you bought the property
• Fix a defect that happened while the property was being made or built
• Enlarge or expand the property so that it has more capacity
• Increase the property's quality, strength, efficiency, or productivity

Costs That Are Restorations

Restorations are repairs that restore or return an asset to its normal condition. Fixing a roof or replacing it entirely are examples. Repairs fall under the category of restorations if they:

• Restore deteriorated property to its "ordinarily efficient operating condition"
• Replace a major component or substantial structural part of a piece of property
• Rebuild the property to like-new condition
• Result in a deductible loss, sale or exchange, or casualty loss treatment for the property or a component of the property

Adaptation Expenses

Adaptations are repairs that change how the property or equipment is being used. An example would be a building owner converting a factory into a showroom. How the building is being used changes from manufacturing to retail. Any repairs related to adapting the property are capitalized.

Specifically, the IRS says that an adaptation expense is "paid to adapt a unit of property to a new or different use if the adaptation is not consistent with your ordinary use of the unit of property at the time you originally placed it in service."

Three Safe Harbor Rules

The general rule is that expenses for repairs and maintenance must be capitalized and depreciated, but there are three exceptions that the IRS refers to as "safe harbors." This basically means that you don't necessarily have to meet all the rules if extenuating circumstances exist. You can immediately deduct these expenses if you meet one of these rules.

You can't just write off an expense even with a safe harbor, however. The IRS requires that you make a specific election to do so by attaching a statement to your tax return.

# 1 A Safe Harbor for Small Invoices

A person or business can immediately deduct repair and maintenance expenses if the cost is $2,500 or less per item or per invoice. This is up from $500, which was the threshold through December 31, 2015. A business with an "applicable financial statement," however, has a safe harbor amount of $5,000.

# 2 A Safe Harbor for Small Projects

Repairs can be deducted immediately if the total amount paid for repairs and maintenance on the property is $10,000 or under, or 2% of the unadjusted basis of the property, whichever amount is less. This safe harbor is only available for businesses with revenues under $10 million and when the property being repaired has an unadjusted basis under $1 million.

# 3 A Safe Harbor for Routine Maintenance

Repair expenses can be deducted immediately if the repairs consist of routine maintenance and satisfy four criteria. The repairs are regularly recurring activities that you would expect to perform, and they result from the wear and tear of being used in your trade or business. They're necessary to keep the property operating efficiently in its normal condition.

Finally, the repairs are expected to be necessary more than once during a 10-year period for buildings and structures related to buildings, or more than once during the property's class life for property other than buildings. The term "class life" refers to the number of years over which the IRS expects property to be depreciated.

A word of caution, however: The routine maintenance safe harbor does not apply to expenses that fall under the category of betterments.

Partial Dispositions—An Example

Suppose a landlord replaces a roof on their rental property. The cost of the property was split into two when the property was placed in service as a rental: land and building. The land is a nondepreciating asset. The cost of the building was capitalized and depreciated over a period of years—27.5 years for residential real estate or 39 years for commercial real estate. The cost of the old roof is therefore included in the cost of the building and it's being depreciated over time.

Now the landlord replaces the roof. This type of restoration must be capitalized and depreciated over 27.5 years or 39 years, depending on the nature of the property. Now the landlord has two assets being depreciated: the original building and the new roof. But the old roof is included in the building so, in a way, the landlord is depreciating an asset—the old roof—that no longer exists.

In this scenario, the IRS allows the landlord to make a partial disposition. In essence, the landlord can write off the cost of the old roof, thus removing that part of the cost from the building's depreciation schedule.

What's the benefit? There's an immediate deduction for the old roof, which offsets the downside of having to depreciate the new roof over several years. As an added bonus, there's no depreciation recapture because there was no sale or exchange. Partial dispositions result in less accumulated depreciation to recapture if the property is sold in the future.

NOTE: Tax laws change periodically. You should always consult with a tax professional for the most up-to-date advice. The information contained in this article is not intended as tax advice and it is not a substitute for tax advice.