Rental property travel expense deduction

[wxdude]

I fly once or twice a year to manage a rental condo across the country and last year had to fly mainly to supervise the installation of new flooring. (I also did some maintenance work on the trip.) According to the IRS "You can’t deduct the cost of traveling away from home if the primary purpose of the trip is to improve the property."  In this case, is the airfare for my trip deductible as an expense? The cost of the new flooring was less than $10,000, so it looks as if I can deduct the cost of the flooring as an expense rather than depreciate it. Would that change whether or not I am able to take the travel deduction? Are there any downsides to claiming the improvement as an expense rather than depreciating the cost?

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

The travel expenses are deductible, the only issue is can you expense them or do you need to add them to the cost of improvements and depreciate them over time.

If you consider the work to be repairs rather then improvements, you can deduct the travel expenses in the current period as such. Otherwise, you would need to add it to the cost of the improvements which are then depreciated.