Repairs and Maintenance
You can deduct most expenses for the repair and maintenance of your farm property. Common items of repair and maintenance are repainting, sealing cracks or replacing broken windows on a farm building, and routine maintenance of trucks, tractors, and other farm machinery. However, expenses for improvements to depreciable property are generally capital expenditures. Amounts are paid for improvements if they are for the betterment of your property, are for a restoration of your property, such as the replacement of major components and substantial structural parts, or if your expenditures adapt your property to a new or different use. For example, if you replace a few shingles on the barn roof, these expenses are generally deductible as repairs and maintenance. If you replace (not repair) the entire barn roof with a new roof, then this expense is generally a capital expenditure. For more information, see Capital Expenses, later.
Under certain conditions, you can elect to capitalize amounts paid for repair and maintenance. See Regulations section 1.263(a)-3(n) for more information.