Repairs and Maintenance Expenses

[BODAISYD]

I have repairs and maintenance expenses for Equipment such as mowers, heavy equipment and lawn equipment. Under Repairs and Maintenance Expenses, the tax guidance in turbotax says, "

If you make an improvement to your business space or equipment that increases its value or lengthens its life, you cannot deduct the full cost this year. Instead, you should write off the expense over several years." My question is how do I write off the expenses over several years?

[tagteam · Accepted solution]

You can deduct (immediately) repairs and maintenance expenses on your equipment but the equipment, itself, needs to be capitalized and depreciated (unless you use another cost recovery method such as Section 179 or bonus depreciation).

[puppo]

As I read it you can't immediately deduct maintenance and repairs if they are a betterment, a restoration or an adaptation.  It's VERY confusing!  I wish I could get a definitive answer somewhere.

[puppo]

I bought two lawnmowers for $60 and I spent around $200 repairing each one.  Can I expense these

repair costs or are these improvements that have to be capitalized (depreciated)?  

[tagteam]

The terms are simply technical terms and you need to use your judgment with respect to which costs to expense and which costs to capitalize.

The words are confusing because they actually make no sense; "betterment" is troubling because just about any repair has the effect of making whatever is repaired "better" (e.g., replacing a broken window makes the entire property "better" than it was when the window was broken).