Self Building Cabin Tax Questions

[Scott Stuart]

Good Morning, 

Me and a partner bought a property in September 2024 and started working on constructing a cabin right away. The sole purpose of this cabin is to rent it as a short term rental. We are doing all the building ourselves so all of our costs will be material costs. We expect the cabin to be done mid 2025 and we will start renting then.

My main question is, is there anything that we can claim on 2024 taxes? Based on what I have read we cannot claim any of the material expenses that we have until the cabin has actually been rented, so 2025, and then it is will be depreciated over many years. Is that correct? 

One thing I am wondering if we can claim is miles driven to the property to do the work. We did drive quite a few miles in 2024 to get out to the property to work on the cabin. Can these miles be claimed on 2024 taxes? If not will they be able to claimed on 2025 taxes?

is there anything else we may be able to claim on 2024 taxes? Cost of Land or land loan payment?Electric bill for the property? Gas costs to get out to the property? LLC filing costs? Anything else I am missing?

Thank you for any help you can provide!

[Collin Hays]

This is definitely a CPA question. I do recall that when I rebuilt a cabin, I had to wait until completion before the real tax benefits began.