Direct and indirect repair or maintenance expenses are common.

A DIRECT repair or maintenance expense involves repairing the specific area or room used for business. Examples include wallpapering or painting your home office.

An INDIRECT repair or maintenance expense benefits both the business and personal areas of the home. Examples include painting the whole house, replacing electric wiring, patching a leak in the roof, and maintaining a security system (but not the original cost of the security system—that's a capital expense).

Repairs or Maintenance vs. Capital Expenses

Be sure to distinguish between repairs/maintenance expenses and capital expenses. You can deduct the full cost of repairs/maintenance in the year you pay for them. With capital expenses, you have to depreciate the expenses over time.

A repair is something that keeps your home in good working order. Examples of repairs include patching walls and floors, painting, wallpapering, repairing roofs and gutters, and fixing leaks.

A capital improvement is something that increases the value or extends the useful life of the home. Examples of capital improvements include replacing electric wiring or plumbing, adding a new roof, building an addition, adding paneling, remodeling, or making a major modification.

If you patch walls and floors as part of a major remodeling, the patching counts as part of the capital expenditure, even if patching those same walls and floors alone would have counted as a repair.