Which T776 line to use to claim rent discount expenses?

[OttawaLandlord]

I am buying a new property and considering offering some discount/incentive while the builder finishes the driveway, the lawns and to mitigate any other inconvenience associated to the first year of any new house (construction, noise, etc...). My preference is to have the rent paid in full and accumulate the discount so it is paid out as a lump payment (rather than letting the Tenant to discount it from the monthly rent). This way the paper trail is cleaner by having separate transactions (please I put some conditions so the discount is paid depending paying in full and on time).



This is my only property and I do not offer services to justify business income so any expense would have to be in the T776 form. Should I register the discount on line 9270 (Other expenses)? Or should I just subtract it from the rent revenue and just enter the result as the Gross Rent for the property (line 8141). I think the second option is incorrect since I would assume that discounts must be disclosed to CRA somehow as an expense somewhere.



Somewhere I read that some discounts can be classified as "gifts" (line 8521)... However, since this is not an expense to attract or market a property I don't think it should be Advertising neither.



Anybody with experience offering discounts?

 

[Thomas Beyer]

Reduce the revenue line accordingly as you collect less rent. CRA cares not how you collected this total rent, monthly, bi-weekly, quarterly, whether all in month 1 or a discount applied in month 7 .. They care about the total annual rent collected.

 

[OttawaLandlord]

Thanks Thomas!