Rental Property Tax Deductions that will Slash Your Landlord Tax

If you are a landlord or property manager, knowing your rental property tax deductions is vital for cutting your taxes to the minimum. Find out how to enjoy lower landlord taxes and boost your profit margins right now.

Rental property tax deductions are basically rental expenses that you are allowed to deduct when calculating your rental property taxes. They are crucial because they will reduce your total amount of property income that is taxable.

To cut down your landlord taxes, you can simply include every possible tax deductions that you are allowed to use. The following are the common and important deductions that a rental property owner can enjoy:

The Depreciation Value of Your Rental Property

When you buy a new rental property, you cannot claim the full amount that you paid for it as expenses right away. Instead your property is slowly depreciated over a long period of time.

Depending on the country that you live in, most depreciation periods for residential property range from 20 to 30 years. Home owners are usually not allowed to claim depreciation as tax deductions so you will not be able to apply this deduction to your own home.

Insurance Premiums Related to Your Rental Property

Being a landlord means that you will usually have to buy a series of insurance polices such as building insurance, home contents insurance and landlord liability insurance.

You will be able to treat the premiums that you fork out for all your landlord insurance policies as tax deductions. If you employ people to manage your rental property, you will be able to claim the premium for their worker insurance as a rental property tax deduction as well.

Repair Bills for Fixing and Maintaining Your Rental Property

The money that you fork out to maintain your rental property in habitable condition is also tax deductible. This refers to any repairs or maintenance that are conducted to make sure that your rental property meets your local health and safety housing standards.

However you must know that any home improvements that you carry out for the purpose of boosting the values of your rental property cannot be considered as rental property tax deductions.

If you hire a contractor or repairman for repairs, make sure you ask them to give you a receipt with the property costs and type of repair work stated on it.

Traveling Costs for Managing Your Rental Property

Any traveling expenses that you rake up for rental activities such as rent collection and property repairs are also tax deductible. You are usually allowed to deduct both your gasoline costs and vehicle's maintenance bills.

If you own rental properties abroad and you travel overseas for real estate activities, you may even to claim your airplane tickets, hotel stays and traveling fares as rental property tax deductions.

The tax agencies in most countries will monitor your tax claims for overseas travel quite closely so be sure not to abuse the system and keep proper written records of your spending such as receipts and bills.

Interest on the Mortgage Payments for Your Rental Property

Unless you are awfully rich, you would have taken a loan like every other landlord to pay for your rental property. Fortunately the interest charged by your bank or lender is counted as rental property tax deductions as well.

Teo Zhenjie has been showing landlords how to manage their tenants and rental properties effectively on Propertydo Landlord Guides. Visit his website for step-by-step real estate guides, free resources and forms.