Taxes
Are Home Repairs Tax Deductible? Your Home vs Your Rental
Are home repairs tax deductible? Not on your own home, with four exceptions. On a rental, yes, in the year paid. The 2026 rules by scenario, with the math.
You fixed a water heater, replaced some rotten deck boards, and paid a plumber twice this year. So, are home repairs tax deductible? For the house you live in: no, with four narrow exceptions. For a rental property: yes, fully, in the year you pay. The same $450 plumbing bill is worth $0 on your own home and roughly $100 of tax savings on a rental in the 22% bracket. The answer depends entirely on what the building does for a living, not on what the repair was.
I keep the books for rental properties, so I spend a lot of time on exactly this line. Here is the full picture: the scenario table, the repair-versus-improvement test that decides the hard cases, the roof question everyone asks, and the 2026 change that quietly removed the energy credits most articles still promise.
The short answer, by scenario
| Scenario | Repairs (fix what broke) | Improvements (upgrade or replace) |
|---|---|---|
| Home you live in | Not deductible | Not deductible now; adds to basis for the sale |
| Rental property | Deduct 100% in the year paid (Schedule E line 14) | Depreciate, usually over 27.5 years |
| Home office | Deduct the business-use % (100% if the repair is only to the office) | Depreciate the business-use share |
| Rent out part of your home | Deduct the rental share | Depreciate the rental share |
| Disaster damage | Casualty-loss rules, federally declared disasters only | Rebuild costs adjust basis |
Two things drive every row. First, whether the property produces income. The tax code deducts costs of producing income, and a personal residence produces none, so its upkeep is a personal expense like groceries. Second, whether the money fixed something or upgraded something. That distinction matters even when a deduction is allowed, because it decides this year versus 27.5 years.
Repairs vs improvements: the test that decides the hard cases
A repair keeps property in ordinary operating condition. Fixing a leak, replacing a faulty doorknob, patching drywall, servicing the furnace. An improvement does one of three things the regulations call betterment, restoration, or adaptation: it makes the property better than it was, restores a major component to like-new, or converts it to a new use.
The practical test I use: did you fix the part, or replace the system? A $450 blower motor in the furnace is a repair. A new furnace is an improvement, because HVAC is one of the building systems the regulations treat as its own unit. Same logic for patching a roof (repair) versus re-roofing (improvement), or snaking a drain (repair) versus repiping the house (improvement).
On your own home this test is low stakes today and high stakes later: repairs get you nothing, improvements add to basis. On a rental it is the whole ballgame, and it is worth being precise. I wrote up the full landlord version, with the BAR test and the three safe harbors, in the Schedule E line 14 repairs guide.
Your own home: no deduction, but keep the improvement receipts
For a personal residence, the IRS position in Publication 523 is plain: repairs and maintenance are personal expenses. No deduction, no basis adjustment. The money is simply spent.
Improvements are different. A remodel, an addition, a new roof, a new HVAC system: each adds to your cost basis, and basis is what stands between your sale price and a taxable gain. Sell for $650,000 what you bought for $400,000 and put $60,000 of documented improvements into, and your gain is $190,000, not $250,000.
Does that matter? Only if your gain can exceed the home-sale exclusion of $250,000 single or $500,000 married filing jointly. In a market where that is plausible, a folder of improvement receipts is worth real money. In line with that, my rule is boring: keep every receipt over a few hundred dollars, label repair or improvement when you file it, and let future-you decide if it matters. Storage is free. Reconstructing a 2014 kitchen remodel from a dead credit card account is not.
Is a new roof tax deductible? The worked math
The single most-asked version of this question, so here it is with numbers.
On your own home: a $14,000 roof replacement deducts $0 this year. It adds $14,000 to basis. If you never exceed the exclusion when you sell, it never produces a tax benefit. That is the plain answer most roofing-company blog posts bury.
On a rental: a full replacement is a restoration of the structure, so it depreciates straight-line over 27.5 years:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Roof cost | $14,000 |
| Annual depreciation ($14,000 ÷ 27.5) | $509 |
| First-year deduction (in service July, mid-month convention) | $233 |
| Old roof's remaining basis | Deductible now via a partial asset disposition election |
That last row is the piece most landlords miss. When you replace a roof on a rental, the old roof usually still has undepreciated basis sitting inside the building's depreciation schedule. A partial asset disposition election lets you write off that remainder in the replacement year, so you are not depreciating two roofs at once. The math on what each asset class depreciates over is in the depreciation life guide, and you can run your own numbers in the rental depreciation calculator.
Patching either roof: a repair. On the rental it deducts in full this year; on your home it is a personal expense.
The four exceptions for a personal home
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Home office. If you qualify under Publication 587 (regular and exclusive business use, principal place of business), repairs split two ways: a repair only to the office space is a direct expense, deductible at 100%; a whole-house repair is an indirect expense, deductible at your business percentage. An 8% office turns a $400 furnace repair into $32. Improvements, even for the office, still depreciate.
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Renting out part of your home. Rent a room or an ADU and that share of the house is a rental. Repairs allocated to the rented portion deduct against the rental income; whole-house repairs deduct at the rental percentage, same mechanics as the home office.
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Casualty losses. Damage from an event in a federally declared disaster area can produce a casualty-loss deduction under Publication 547, computed from the drop in value or your basis, minus insurance, minus the statutory floors. This is a loss deduction, not a repair deduction: what you spend fixing the damage adjusts basis. Outside a declared disaster, personal casualty losses are generally not deductible at all under current law.
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Medically necessary modifications. Ramps, grab bars, widened doorways, a lift: deductible as medical expenses to the extent the cost exceeds any increase in your home's value, and only above the 7.5% of AGI medical floor. Full-value items that add no market value, like grab bars, count entirely.
The 2026 change: federal energy credits are gone
Through 2025, the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit paid 30% of qualifying costs, capped at $1,200 a year plus $2,000 for heat pumps and similar equipment. The IRS page now carries the operative sentence: the credit applies to qualifying property placed in service before December 31, 2025.
So work completed in 2026 gets no federal energy credit, and the residential clean energy credit for solar ended on the same timeline. Plenty of articles ranking for this question were written in 2024 and still lead with the credits. If a contractor quotes you a "30% back at tax time" number this year, that math is a year out of date. Check your state and utility programs instead; some of those continue.
If you finished qualifying work in 2025 and have not filed for it, that credit still belongs on your 2025 return.
On a rental, repairs are the good line
Once a property is a rental, the logic flips. Repairs are a cost of producing rental income, so Publication 527 puts them on Schedule E line 14, deductible in full in the year paid. Improvements depreciate over 27.5 years for the building and its systems, faster for appliances and flooring.
Three tools make the line easier to hold in practice:
- The de minimis safe harbor lets you expense items up to $2,500 per invoice line with a simple election, even when they would otherwise be improvements. A $1,900 water heater becomes a current deduction instead of a 27.5-year schedule entry. Details and the election mechanics are in the de minimis safe harbor guide.
- The small taxpayer safe harbor can expense a year's worth of repairs and improvements on a modest building if the total stays under the lesser of $10,000 or 2% of the building's unadjusted basis.
- A clean paper trail. Categorizing by what the expense actually is, not by what the account is named, is what makes the deduction stick. I have watched a real $450 plumbing repair vanish from a repairs total because the account it was booked to rolled up to "Other" in the tax mapping. The name said repairs; the mapping did not.
One warning from the same fights: timing. Repairs made while getting a property ready to rent, before it is placed in service, are not currently deductible; they capitalize into basis. The same work done a month after the first tenant moves in is a line 14 deduction. The calendar, not the invoice, decides.
The takeaway
Repairs on the home you live in are not deductible, and no filing trick changes that. What you can do: keep improvement receipts against the day your sale gain flirts with the exclusion, claim the office or rented-room share if part of your home earns income, and stop planning around federal energy credits that ended with 2025.
The moment a property becomes a rental, the same receipts turn into money: repairs deduct in full the year paid, improvements depreciate on a schedule, and the repair-versus-improvement call is worth getting right on every invoice. If that is the situation you are actually in, the line 14 guide is the deep end of this pool.
Frequently asked questions
Is a new roof tax deductible on your own home?
No. A new roof on your personal residence is a capital improvement, not a repair, so there is no deduction the year you pay for it. The cost adds to your home's basis, which can shrink your taxable gain when you sell. A $14,000 roof does nothing for this year's return, but it is $14,000 less gain to report later, which only matters if your gain exceeds the $250,000 single or $500,000 married home-sale exclusion.
Is a roof replacement tax deductible on a rental property?
Not as a one-year deduction, but you do get the cost back. A full roof replacement on a residential rental is an improvement to the structure, so you depreciate it straight-line over 27.5 years. A $14,000 roof gives you about $509 a year, and roughly $233 in the first year if it goes in service in July because of the mid-month convention. You can also elect a partial asset disposition to write off the remaining basis of the old roof in the same year.
Can you write off rent on your taxes?
Not on a federal return for a home you simply live in. There is no federal deduction for personal rent. The exceptions are business use: a qualifying home office in a rented home deducts the business-use share of rent, and rent on business property is an ordinary business expense. A handful of states offer small renter credits on the state return, which is a separate question from the federal one.
Is painting a house tax deductible?
On your own home, no, and repainting generally does not add to basis either because the IRS treats it as maintenance rather than an improvement. On a rental, interior or exterior painting between tenants or to keep the property in ordinary operating condition is a classic deductible repair in the year paid. Painting done as part of a larger remodel gets folded into the remodel and depreciated with it.
Is a new HVAC system tax deductible?
On a personal home, no current deduction; it adds to basis. On a rental, a full system replacement is an improvement to the building's HVAC system, one of the structural systems the regulations name, so it is depreciated rather than deducted. Fixing the same system, say a $450 blower motor or a refrigerant leak, is a repair you deduct in full that year. The line is replace-the-system versus fix-the-system.
Is a bathroom remodel tax deductible?
Not on your own home. A remodel is a betterment, so the cost adds to basis and waits for the sale calculation. On a rental, a remodel is also not a current deduction; it depreciates over 27.5 years as an improvement. If the remodel is medically necessary equipment for you or a dependent, like grab bars or a roll-in shower in your personal home, the cost above any increase in home value can count as a medical expense subject to the 7.5% of AGI floor.
Are energy-efficient home improvements still tax deductible in 2026?
The federal energy credits are gone for new work. The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, 30% of qualifying costs up to $1,200 a year plus $2,000 for heat pumps, only applies to property placed in service before December 31, 2025. Work you complete in 2026 gets no federal energy credit. If you made qualifying improvements in 2025, claim them on your 2025 return; do not carry the assumption into 2026 planning.
What home repairs are tax deductible for a home office?
Two kinds, treated differently under IRS Publication 587. A repair only to the office itself, like patching that room's drywall, is a direct expense you deduct at 100%. A repair to the whole house, like a furnace fix, is an indirect expense you deduct at your business-use percentage: an 8% home office turns a $400 furnace repair into a $32 deduction. Improvements still get depreciated, not deducted, even for the office share.