Reporting hail damage for rental property
My rental property received damage from a hail storm in 2025. My roof was replaced, gutters/downspouts were replaced, one side of the house was painted, and a shed roof was replaced. When all said and done I only paid roughly $300 out of pocket, insurance covered the rest.
Do I report the insurance payout as rental income (I don't believe I do)? I am pretty sure I have to depreciate the new roof over the 27.5 years so can I include the roof, shed roof, gutters, and paint all under one asset and call it like 2025 hail damage and that is depreciated over time." Then the cost would be just the $300 since that's all I paid? Or would I have to separate the roof, shed roof, gutters, and paint all out separately as assets and if so how do i figure out the cost that I paid between each?
When all said and done, is it even worth reporting since total cost was $300 and depreciating over time won't be much.
Comments
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Dear chiefsfan:
You are correct in that you should not report the insurance reimbursement as rental income unless the insurance reimbursement exceeded the cost of your repairs. Any excess insurance reimbursement should be characterized as rental income and reported as such.
The new paint you applied to your rental property can be fairly characterized as a maintenance cost rather than as a capital improvement. Thus, report the new paint as a rental expense in an amount you feel is reasonable given the circumstances that your insurance reimbursement seems to have covered nearly all of your out of pocket costs.
The new roof, gutters, and downspouts can be grouped together and depreciated as a separate asset class. As you indicated, the depreciation will take place over a period of 27-1/2 years. While it appears your cost basis will be a small amount given the insurance reimbursement, it is nonetheless appropriate to depreciate the new roof, gutters, and downspouts whatever their cost basis.
Regarding the shed, did you previously group that asset with your rental home? If yes, then you can add the cost basis for the new shed roof to the rental home’s cost basis for its new roof/gutters/downspouts. If you have previously characterized the shed and rental home as separate assets, then continue with that approach and add the new shed roof as a separate asset.
In terms of allocating your cost to the items you had to purchase—the roof, gutters, downspouts, and paint—one approach is to calculate the percentage cost for each item as it relates to the whole, i.e. your $300 out of pocket. For example, if a new roof, without any insurance reimbursement, costs $1,000, and to paint the side of your rental home, without any insurance reimbursement, would cost $50, then the paint represents 5% of the cost for the new roof. Thus, and using this example, you could allocate $50 (5% of $1,000) to the paint and deduct that amount as a maintenance expense.
Because you have disposed of the old roof, it is no longer part of the original rental property and therefore, you need to report its disposition. The disposition of the old roof is reported on Form 4797, Sale of Business Property, and our software will handle the disposition and resulting calculations. In connection with reporting the disposition of the old roof, you will first need to calculate its book value—which is the cost basis of the old roof less the depreciation taken—however, rather than discussing in detail the steps you will need to take, please reach out to our Tax Pros, either through scheduling a call or chat, and they will be able to walk you through the process.1
