Investors & landlords

Painting is usually a repair. You don't depreciate repairs. You depreciate improvements.

Painting can be an improvement in some cases- We don't know anything other than that you painted, so it would be impossible to tell you an exact answer without more info.

Repainting the exterior of your residential rental property:

• By itself, the cost of painting the exterior of a building is generally a currently deductible repair expense because merely painting isn't an improvement under the capitalization rules.
• However, if the painting directly benefits or is incurred as part of a larger project that's a capital improvement to the building structure, then the cost of the painting is considered part of the capital improvement and is subject to capitalization.
• In this case, the painting is incurred as part of the overall restoration of the building structure. Therefore, the repainting costs are part of the capital improvements and should be capitalized and depreciated as the same class of property that was restored, as discussed above.