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Can I add all of the past rental expenses (renovations) and put them on my 2019 tax form?

I've had my home for 4 years and have been renovating during those years get it into a good condition to rent. This has been a learning curve and didn't know that I could write off the renovation expenses from previous years. Can I add all of the past expenses and put them on my 2019 tax form?

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Can I add all of the past rental expenses (renovations) and put them on my 2019 tax form?

You cannot claim your renovation costs as "Current Expenses" on your rental property. Only general Maintenance & Repair expenses can be claimed in their entirety, and only in the year in which you actually incurred the expense.

If you are preparing your property to rent for the first time, you can claim these costs, but they will need to be added to the "cost" of the rental and claimed as depreciation or used in the calculation of the "Adjusted Cost Base" upon sale.

**CRA states in the attached Rental Income guide that your rental property must be available for use before you can start claiming Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) or depreciation on that property.

There are also what is know as "soft costs" which include Interest, Legal Fees, Accounting Fees & Property Taxes. You can claim these costs as "Current Expenses" if you paid them while renovating or constructing the property, but you must have some Rental Income to apply them against. You cannot claim more than you than the rent you received.

If you have NO rental income in the year, you can add the soft costs to the Capital Cost of the building only and claim CCA when you actually earn rental income.

CRA's guide to Rental Income can be found at this link: https://bit.ly/2TDcVYG