Being the fastidious property tycoon that you are, you undoubtedly maintain a home office dedicated to managing your rental portfolio.
Yes, you are entitled to claim some home office costs, however you do have to be realistic about it. For example, if you only own one rental property, and pay management fees, then it would be unrealistic to claim your entire internet connection costs.
That said, if you have a portfolio of 3 or more properties then as I am sure you already know, there is a lot of paper warfare involved. Many landlords use some sort of electronic accounting package to manage their increasingly complicated rental related affairs. You most likely have some kind of journal (avoid the term “magazine”) subscription. And chances are you prefer to keep in touch with your property managers via email. In that scenario you should look at a few costs like:
- The appropriate portion of your internet connection costs
- The appropriate portion of the depreciation on your PC / Laptop
- Other office equipment
- The cost of heat & light in your office (26c an hour)
- Stationery costs
Its worth pointing out though, that you cannot claim the costs of researching prospective properties. Although in reality, the time spent doing this sort of research is most usually negligible.