What rental expenses are tax deductible?

The general rule in both Canada and the US is that ordinary, necessary costs of earning rental income are deductible in the year you pay them. That covers repairs and maintenance, insurance, property tax, mortgage interest, property management, legal and professional fees, cleaning, supplies, advertising, and travel connected to the rental.

Two things are not deductible the same way: the principal portion of your mortgage payment, and capital improvements, which are claimed over time rather than all at once.

The usual split

The repair versus improvement line is where most landlords get it wrong. Patching a roof is a repair. Replacing the roof is an improvement.

The categories ProperLease uses

Expenses are filed under Repairs and Maintenance, Property Tax, Insurance, Mortgage Payment, Property Management, Cleaning, Legal and Professional, Travel, Advertising, Supplies, and Other. Each expense also carries its own deductible flag, because deductibility depends on the circumstances, not only on the category.

What to do in ProperLease

1. Open Expenses and tap the plus button.
2. Attach the property, so the cost lands in the right per-property total.
3. Enter the amount, the date, and the category.
4. Set the deductible flag.
5. Mark it recurring for predictable costs like insurance, so you do not re-enter it every month.
6. Log repairs through Maintenance and let them create the matching expense, so a job is never recorded twice or forgotten once.

For more, see what rental expenses are actually tax deductible.