How do I report expenses related to fixing up my property to rent?

[californiakk]

They give the option of deducting the full value of the item this year.

[californiakk]

or 100% special depreciation allowance

[californiakk]

Would I want to do both a deduction and depreciation?

[Carl]

You can't "do both" per-se on an asset. If you take the 50% special depreciation allowance, then the remaining depreciation is deducted over time. If you take the full 100%, then it's fully depreciated and there is no more to take in later years.
It's not uncommon for some assets to qualify for the special allowance, while others do not.
On rental property if there's a mortgage on it, then its rare for you to show taxable income each year. What's more common is for your losses to always exceed the rental income. Those losses will carry over each year and the amount of loss carried over each year will continue to increase. You don't get to "realize" your losses against ordinary income until the year you sell or otherwise dispose of the property.

[californiakk]

Thank you, Carl. You really know your stuff.

[Carl]

Only "somewhat" true for rental property. Been a landlord for 25 plus years now. But I don't know much about 1031 exchanges and the such, and I've seen quite a number of posts for that this year. When it comes to a 1031 exchange involving rental property, I pretty much have to pass those posts by. To easy for me to give wrong information that can actually hurt.