I have a question. I'm an owner-occupied landlord of a 4-family flat. I do all of the management, maintenance and most of the repairs.

[Barbara]

I do all of the maintenance and repairs to all units of my 4-family flat.  I only call in professionals for sewer, roof or major electrical repairs.  How do I figure out how to deduct those expenses from my share of the rental income?

[MichaelL1 · Accepted solution]

So on the rental you are reporting income for 3 units and deducting expenses for three units.

When you set it up for depreciation you should have 3/4's of the cost set up.

When you have a general expense (that cannot be allocated to a specific unit) such as trash pickup, you take 75% of the cost as an expense.

When you have a cost that can be directly shown to one unit --such as replacing a toilet in one unit that is a rental, then you deduct 100% of that cost.

Please post a comment if I did not fully address your question.

[Barbara]

Thank you, that makes sense.  But, There are 3 of us who do all of the maintenance, ie, installing new toilets, fixing minor plumbing problems, all painting, wall repair and the sundry other problems people incur.  Is there a way to charge for all that labor to a specific apartment, or could it be a barter between me and that specific apartment?

[MichaelL1]

If you are the owner along with the other 2, then your sweat equity (by doing all the work yourselves) is just making your apartments incur less costs (which is great).  If you paid yourselves it would be income to you, and then deduction for the rental -so it would even out.