Rental Property File
Keep your rental's rents, T776 expenses, CCA and cost base in one file, year after year, and see the tax if you sold. Everything stays in your browser.
The tax on a rental is decided twice: once a year on form T776, and once more, much bigger, the day you sell. The Rental Property File keeps the numbers for both in one place.
The short version
- Enter the purchase once: price, closing costs, land share, CCA class.
- Each year, add rents and expenses under the same headings as form T776, and log improvements as capital or repairs.
- It tracks your cost base, building cost and the CCA you've claimed, estimates this year's maximum CCA (which can't create a rental loss), and prints the T776 numbers.
- Any time, see roughly what the tax would be if you sold, recapture included.
- $49.00 + HST per property per year. No AI, no uploads: everything stays in your browser, with a backup file you keep.
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Who does the work: our calculator, using the CRA rules for the year. No accountant reviews it. How we test it
Selling now? The Rental Sale SmartFile does the sale itself, with the forms.
Why Landlords Get Caught at the Sale
Rental tax goes wrong slowly. A new roof gets written off as a repair one year, the closing costs from the purchase get forgotten, nobody remembers what CCA was claimed in 2019, and the land-and-building split was never written down. Fifteen years later the property sells, and the capital gain and recaptured CCA have to be rebuilt from a box of receipts and an accountant's best guess. Guesses rarely go in your favour.
Keeping one tidy file, year by year, fixes that for the price of a tank of gas.
What It Tracks
- Rents and expenses under the T776 headings: advertising, insurance, interest and bank charges, office, professional fees, management, repairs and maintenance, salaries, property taxes, travel, utilities, motor vehicle and other expenses. See rental expenses you can deduct.
- Personal use, for a basement unit or a cottage you also use, so only the rental share is deducted.
- Capital improvements versus repairs. Improvements go into the building cost and get CCA; like-for-like repairs are deducted the year you pay them.
- CCA. The undepreciated cost at the start of each year, this year's maximum, and what you chose to claim. CCA can never create or increase a rental loss. See CCA on rentals.
- Your cost base: purchase price, closing costs and improvements, the number that sets the capital gain.
- If you sold today: recaptured CCA, capital gain and the rough tax, using our rental sale calculator.
Rental income on this year's return?
Return Check (complex) reads the T776 with the rest of your return and flags what CRA is likely to question, like losses year after year.
When the day comes, the gain and the recapture are explained in rental property capital gains.
Your Data Stays With You
The file has no uploads and no AI. Everything you type stays in your browser on this device. Use “Download backup” now and then, and “Restore backup” on another computer or in next year's file. When the year ends, the file stays readable and printable; buy the next year and restore your backup to keep adding to it.
How healthy are your taxes?
Fifteen quick questions, a score out of 100, and the three things worth fixing first. Nothing to sign up for.
Rental Property File Questions
What records should a landlord keep for taxes in Canada?
Keep the purchase documents and closing costs, every receipt for expenses and improvements, the rent records, and the CCA claimed each year, for six years after the year you sell. The cost base and CCA history decide the tax on the sale.
Do I have to claim CCA on my rental property?
No. CCA is optional each year. Whatever you claim reduces the building’s undepreciated cost and may come back as recaptured income when you sell. CCA cannot create or increase a rental loss.
Is a new roof a repair or a capital expense?
Replacing with the same kind of material is usually a repair. If the work makes the property better than when you bought it, such as a better material, an addition or a full renovation, it is usually capital and goes into the building cost.
Is my data stored on your server?
No. The Rental Property File keeps everything in your browser. Download the backup file to keep a copy.
Sources: CRA, Guide T4036, Rental Income; CRA, Completing form T776. Checked October 2026. Estimates, not tax advice. CanadianTaxes.ai is not the Canada Revenue Agency.
Last reviewed October 5, 2026 against CRA and Government of Canada sources. How we check our facts.