First, home improvement is capital spending, need to depreciation instead of expensing them in the current year.
Second, following situation you can deduct certain capital spending in the curent year against rental income
1. de minimus safe harbor: in order to reduce accounting burden, any tanigble property under $2500 per invoice can be deducted, even though they are capital spending.
2. small taxpayer safe harbor: for building less than 1 mil, and taxpayer annual gross rent less than 10 mil, you can deduct $10,000 capital spending, this includes tangible property and labor.
