Expenses for rental property and home office

Leveraging, renting vs owning, making an investment or buying a home?
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CROCKD
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Expenses for rental property and home office

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The following questions have been asked by my daughter.

A. What expenses are allowed for a rental property with respect to expenses by landlord of a) cell phone expense b) car expenses

B. For a home office (in principal residence) what expenses are allowed as write off with respect to installation and operation of solar panels.
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Just a Guy
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Re: Expenses for rental property and home office

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For the expenses in regard to being a landlord, it depends greatly on the number of properties you own. Less than a certain number (it used to be three) and there is very little you can write off, more than three the things you can write off increases quite a bit.
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Re: Expenses for rental property and home office

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Thanks Just a Guy for your response, I have passed on the information to my daughter.
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Re: Expenses for rental property and home office

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CROCKD wrote:For a home office (in principal residence) what expenses are allowed as write off with respect to installation and operation of solar panels.
I would suggest reading over the following from CRA: Work-space-in-the-home expenses

In the distance past when I was a contractor working mainly from home, I did this kind of deduction for utilities..etc.. but nothing so esoteric like solar panel installation and operation. This may be beyond the bounds of reasonable costs that relate to your work space.

See quote below:
You can deduct the part of your costs that relates to your work space, such as the cost of electricity, heating, and maintenance. However, you cannot deduct mortgage interest, property taxes, home insurance, or capital cost allowance.

To calculate the percentage of work-space-in-the-home expenses you can deduct, use a reasonable basis, such as the area of the work space divided by the total finished area (including hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.). For maintenance costs, it may not be appropriate to use a percentage of these costs. For example, if the expenses you paid (such as cleaning materials or paint) were to maintain a part of the house that was not used as a work space, then you cannot deduct any part of them. Alternatively, if the expenses you paid were to maintain the work space only, then you may be able to deduct all or most of them.
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Re: Expenses for rental property and home office

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CROCKD wrote:The following questions have been asked by my daughter.

A. What expenses are allowed for a rental property with respect to expenses by landlord of a) cell phone expense b) car expenses

B. For a home office (in principal residence) what expenses are allowed as write off with respect to installation and operation of solar panels.
A. If a landlord uses the phone and the car to perform the rental business, he/she can claim the phone fee and the gas, but ONLY limited to the portion used for business. Say, you drove the car for 10,000 km in the whole year, but only 100 km were related to the rental, than you can only claim 1% of your car gas usage in the year, and you need to have receipts for all car gas bills, as CRA may ask for them in an audit.

B. Short answer is no.
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CROCKD
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Re: Expenses for rental property and home office

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Thanks to all who reponded to my enquiry. The information has been forwarded to my daughter.
" A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it is written on " Samuel Goldwyn
"The light at the end of the tunnel may be a freight train coming your way" Metallica - No Leaf Clover
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