I own rental property for which I use the De Minimis Safe Harbor rule to count small assets (appliances, furniture, etc., below $2,500 each) as expenses in the year I buy them. As I understand it, this rule requires that I have a policy of treating costs like this as expenses rather than improvements.
Separate to this, I have been making a series of small improvements, each below $2,500, to my own residence (not the rental property). I plan to eventually include these costs in the calculation of the cost basis of my home when I sell it. However, the De Minimis Safe Harbor rule seems to say that I should have a policy that regards these as expenses rather than improvements.
So my question is, if I am using the De Minimis Safe Harbor rule for small improvements to my rental property, does that mean I also have to treat small improvements in my own residence as expenses, so I can't add them to my basis when I sell my residence?
Thanks for any help you can give!
