Expenses are where most of your tax savings hide, and where a shoebox of receipts loses them. Recording costs as they happen, against the right property, means your deductible total is already built when the year ends.
Add an expense
Open Expenses and tap the plus button. Each expense captures:
- Property: the building or unit the cost belongs to, so it lands in the right per property total.
- Amount and date: what you paid and when.
- Category: repairs and maintenance, insurance, property tax, management fees, professional fees, supplies, and so on.
- Deductible: a toggle that marks whether the cost reduces your taxable rental income.
- One time or recurring: use recurring for predictable costs like insurance or a monthly service so you do not re enter them.
Once saved, the expense appears in the list and rolls into the dashboard and your year end report.
Let maintenance create expenses for you
When you log a repair under Maintenance and record what it cost, ProperLease can create the matching expense automatically and tag it deductible. This keeps the two records in sync: the work order documents what happened, and the expense captures the money. You avoid entering the same repair twice and you never forget to claim it.
Deductible or not
The general rule is that ordinary operating costs to earn rental income are deductible, while the principal portion of your mortgage and capital improvements are not treated the same way. Use the deductible toggle to keep these separate as you go.
| Usually deductible | Not deductible the same way |
|---|---|
| Repairs and maintenance | Principal portion of mortgage payments |
| Insurance premiums | Major improvements (capital, claimed over time) |
| Property tax | Your own unpaid labor |
| Management and professional fees | Purchase price of the property |
| Mortgage interest | Personal expenses unrelated to the rental |
Categories and treatment vary between Canada and the US and by your situation. Confirm the details with your accountant. ProperLease organizes the records so that conversation is short.
Keep the record clean all year
- Enter costs when they happen, not in April. A minute now beats an afternoon later.
- Attach the property every time so per property cashflow stays accurate.
- Use recurring for anything predictable.
- Split mixed costs (a bill covering two buildings) into the right amounts per property.
Related
- Learn what qualifies in What rental expenses are actually tax deductible.
- When the year closes, export a tax ready report.
- See how costs flow into real cashflow per property.
Run your rentals with absolute clarity
ProperLease helps self-managing landlords in Canada and the US track rent, generate provincial and state leases, serve notices, and stay tax ready.