Home renovation in the tax context includes any work done that significantly increases the value of the house, extends its useful life or adapts it to new applications. These include room additions, new bathrooms, floors, fences, landscape architecture, wiring upgrades, walkways, driveway, kitchen upgrades, plumbing upgrades, and new roofs. Are home improvement expenses tax deductible?
If you use the house only as a residence, you cannot deduct the cost of renovating the house. These costs are irreducible personal expenses.
However, this does not mean that home repairs do not have a tax credit. They can help reduce the amount of taxes you have to pay when you sell a home for a profit. This is because home improvement costs are added to the home tax base. “Base” means the amount of investment in a house for tax purposes. The larger the base, the less profit you will get when selling your home. However, there are cases where you can deduct tax
Energy-saving renovations
The exception, however, are changes that are energy-saving. If you make energy-saving improvements, such as upgrading to renewable energy, then yes. You may be eligible for a tax credit to offset some expenses.
Starting your own company – Home Office
One way to depreciate home renovation costs is to set up a business and use part of your home as an office for your business. To qualify for a home office deduction, you must have a legitimate business and use parts of your home exclusively and regularly for the business.
If you qualify for this deduction, you can deduct 100% of the cost of improvements made only to your home office. For example, if you use the bedroom at home as a home office and pay the carpenter to install built-in book shelves, you can depreciate the entire cost as a business cost.
Improvements that benefit the entire home are depreciated depending on the percentage of home office use. For example, if you use 20% of your home as an office, you can cushion 20% of the cost of upgrading your home’s heating and air conditioning system.
Home repairs made for medical purposes
Tax deductions reduce taxable income and reduce the overall tax liability. The IRS allows tax deductions from medical expenses related to “diagnosis, treatment, alleviation, treatment or prevention of disease.” However, they are limited and their height must be adequate, not exceeding a certain threshold
Renting part of your home
Another way to reduce home renovation costs is to rent a part of the house. This enables amortization of the cost as the rental cost. This amount is deducted from the rental income received. As with home office deductions, improvements that only benefit a part of the rented home can be fully depreciated. Improvements that benefit the entire home can be depreciated according to the percentage of home rent.
So there are ways to get a tax credit for refurbishing your home and be able to write off these costs.
