I have a rental property 2,000 miles round trip from home. I took a road trip for fun but visited my property and did maintenance. Can I write off these miles?

[dk7]

This summer I took a road trip for vacation. It brought me to my rental property where I spent a day doing maintenance. Can I write off these miles? My mileage log would show a 3 week trip where I only spent 1 day at the property (I have home depot receipts that correlate with this day as well that I have documented in my rental home expenses). Is it feasible to use these miles and my vehicle for this purpose?

[ValerieE · Accepted solution]

No.  The rules for deducting travel expenses related to a rental say:

Travel expenses.   You can deduct the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home if the primary purpose of the trip is to collect rental income or to manage, conserve, or maintain your rental property. You must properly allocate your expenses between rental and nonrental activities. You cannot deduct the cost of traveling away from home if the primary purpose of the trip is to improve the property. The cost of improvements is recovered by taking depreciation. For information on travel expenses, see chapter 1 of Pub. 463. (emphasis added)

Since your primary purpose for the trip was personal in nature and not "to collect rental income or to manage, conserve, or maintain your rental property" the trip would not qualify.  If you did try to stretch the "primary purpose" then you would only be able to deduct the travel expenses for the day you were actually at your property.  The entire trip would not be deductible.

If you made any improvements or repairs to the home while you were there you can deduct those expenses but not the travel expenses.