claiming condo fees on rental property for income tax

[bmeier]

I have been reading about this but am still a little unclear.

Anyone have any advice as to claiming condo fees as an expense?

What exactly can you claim? From my reading i am under the impression its not 100% deductible.

[TomcoPDR]

Should be 100%. It's part of cost to earn ur monthly rent income

[masoncgy]

It's like insurance, taxes & interest... an expense. You can write off the whole amount.

[Xtrema]

Unless you live there as well, 100%.

[bmeier]

the CRA has worded it a little awkwardly but thanks for the confirmation.

[Mar]

I just asked my accountant about this a few days ago.

If you're writing off 20% of your home as a business area then you write off 20% of all your house stuff:
- utilities
- condo fees
- mortgage interest

[Enhance]

Originally posted by bmeier
I have been reading about this but am still a little unclear.

Anyone have any advice as to claiming condo fees as an expense?

What exactly can you claim? From my reading i am under the impression its not 100% deductible.

On a rental property you can claim condo fees, mortgage interest, property taxes, maintenance costs, insurance (?? I'm not sure if landlords need insurance or if renters insurance covers the landlord, either way it's only claimable if you're the one paying it).


Originally posted by Mar
if you're writing off 20% of your home as a business area then you write off 20% of all your house stuff:
This is true, however some utilities (television, main phone line) aren't deductible; also if you claim CCA on your house you wont be eligible for the principal residence exemption when you decide to sell your house, so don't do that.

[bmeier]

Both the tenant and landlord need insurance.

Tenant for their personal property and landlord in case something happens to the house.

[TE4MFaint]

so when i put my condo up for rent this summer..

i will be able to claim my condo fee's even though they include utilities?

[msommers]

What if I had a home, 4 bedrooms and had 3 roommates - I would live there as well. Does that mean I'd be able to write off 3/4 of all the bills associated with the home?

[tch7]

Originally posted by msommers
What if I had a home, 4 bedrooms and had 3 roommates - I would live there as well. Does that mean I'd be able to write off 3/4 of all the bills associated with the home?
Basically yes.
The split could also be based on square meters.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4036/t4036-e.html#P360_33597

[msommers]

Just to be clear, bills would include:

- Heat
- Water
- Electricity
- Home insurance
- Home maintenance/repairs
- Mortgage payments
- Renovations(?)
- Condo fees (if you own a condo)

If this is true, living at your own rental property sounds like a ridiculously smart way to go about owning a home, especially a first-time home buyer like myself. I mean even if you had a smaller home that you shared with one other person, you could write-off half?!

[KappaSigma]

Originally posted by msommers
Just to be clear, bills would include:

- Heat
- Water
- Electricity
- Home insurance
- Home maintenance/repairs
- Mortgage payments
- Renovations(?)
- Condo fees (if you own a condo)

If this is true, living at your own rental property sounds like a ridiculously smart way to go about owning a home, especially a first-time home buyer like myself. I mean even if you had a smaller home that you shared with one other person, you could write-off half?!

Except I believe you screw yourself for primary residence status is you are renting and living..IE you go to sell and have a gain..you pay tax!

[triplep]

Originally posted by KappaSigma


Except I believe you screw yourself for primary residence status is you are renting and living..IE you go to sell and have a gain..you pay tax!

Yup you would totally screw yourself over if you "rented" to yourself.

I mean if the place went up 100k while you rented it there, then you'd have to pay taxes on 50k..... for arguments sake, say 32 % tax rate, you'd have to pay 16k in taxes... i'm not 100% sure the tax savings would be there... since you would have to rent the unit to yourself at fair market values as well.... so you would in essence also be increasing your taxable income if you didn't have all the expenses to cover your rental income and make it 0.

[BrknFngrs]

If you're claiming the expenses for portions of a place you're renting out to roommates you'd also need to be claiming the income you get from them (which you should be doing regardless, but I think this often gets "forgotten")

[bmeier]

Renovations are touchy you can't claim an entire Reno expense in one year if its made to "improve" the property. You can however claim repairs repairs to restore it to the original state if broken.

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by bmeier
Renovations are touchy you can't claim an entire Reno expense in one year if its made to "improve" the property. You can however claim repairs repairs to restore it to the original state if broken.

This guide might be helpful

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4036/t4036-e.html#P374_36850

[msommers]

What do you guys mean, renting to yourself? What I had in mind was paying the mortgage, utilities, repairs/maintenance etc and then charging rent w/ utilities to the other person I'd live with. Effectively, I'd have to claim the, lets say 500/month, as income however I could write-off half the home expenses? And if I were to sell, while still renting half of it to someone else, I'd be taxed on the market gain on it? What if I owned the home for 10 years and was only renting for the first 2?

Hmm, a lot more complicated that I thought.

[tch7]

Originally posted by msommers
And if I were to sell, while still renting half of it to someone else, I'd be taxed on the market gain on it?
You'd only be taxed on the capital gains for the portion that was rented. Your portion (provided it's your principal residence) would not be taxed.

Chapter 4 at the link posted above elaborates on that and answers your other questions.

[yellowsnow]

Also you can't expense your mortgage payment, ONLY the mortgage interest

[max_boost]

Originally posted by msommers
Just to be clear, bills would include:

- Heat
- Water
- Electricity
- Home insurance
- Home maintenance/repairs
- Mortgage payments
- Renovations(?)
- Condo fees (if you own a condo)

If this is true, living at your own rental property sounds like a ridiculously smart way to go about owning a home, especially a first-time home buyer like myself. I mean even if you had a smaller home that you shared with one other person, you could write-off half?!

For a moment there I thought, genius! haha well you probably don't have to worry about $100K appreciation right now. :D