The same applies to tax planning.

Q:

Subject: Vacation Home Investment

 

Hi Kerry,

 

I plan to build a vacation rental in a couple of years.  The house will be used exclusively for business purposes and rented out by the day , weekend or week.  I will manage the property myself.  My question is . . . . is this activity a small business which I report out on Schedule C or a passive rental activity which I report out on Schedule E?  What is the determining factor(s).  If I have a choice as to how to report, what should I consider in making my decision?  My own research of IRS pubs seems to indicate that this should be treated as a small business but I keep seeing material on the web which seems to indicate otherwise.  Thanks.  You are the best.

 

Regards,

A:

That would be reported on Schedule C.  The break point is either that the average use of the property by renters is seven days or less, or 30 days or less and you (the owner) provide significant personal services along with the rental, such as cleaning and maintenance work.

As I constantly stress, trying to navigate the tax world without the assistance of at least one competent professional tax advisor is extremely dangerous. Your question, which any experienced tax pro could help you with, proves that you need to start working with one ASAP.   Any experienced tax pro can help you with that, as well as with maximizing all of the other kinds of deductions that are available for rental properties.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

 

Q:

Subject: Lease from Self

I am part owner of several corporate entities, Health Care Facilities,  Fast Food stores and Real Estate.  We have owned these properties for several years, consequently the majority have been depreciated ou,t specifically the equipment.  My question is, is it possible to use a corporation to buy the equipment from the entities and lease the equipment back to them and thus re-establishing depreciation on that equipment.  Be aware that there is common ownership among these entities.  What would be the benefits of this and what would be the drawbacks or negatives.

A:

This is the exact kind of thing that you should be discussing with your personal professional tax advisor.

What you will probably find out, if your tax pro runs some numbers for you, is that your plan would end up costing you more than it saves.  In order to inflate the values of the assets for higher depreciation, the selling entities will have to report gains, including depreciation recapture, which would be immediately taxable.  The higher depreciation deductions would be spread out over the next several years of the assets’ lives.  Paying lump sum higher taxes now for higher deductions over the next five plus years seems to be counter-productive.

However, your entities may have large net operating losses, or other large deductions that could offset the sale profits.  Your personal tax advisor can help you see if that is the case.  However, if s/he does decide that such a sale makes sense, you will nee to be extra diligent in documenting the values you place on the assets.  IRS automatically regards such sales (aka churning) between related parties with suspicion, especially when there will be a tax savings opportunities.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

 

Q:

Subject: small question

 

Hi, I am 20 years old and i am trying to figure something out. I noticed you posted on google groups, so I thought you cold help.

SO, I am in college and I have had 4 jobs last year. Two on campus jobs and two jobs in the summer. For one of the on campus jobs i am paid from an off campus firm. I am paid $40 a week. I have never met the people who pay me, and they do not submit a w2 form. I noticed this when dealing with finical aid. Am I going to jail? Or doing something illegal?

A:

All income you receive is taxable, whether or not the payer submitted a W-2 or 1099.

Get with a professional tax preparer ASAP to calculate your taxes for 2005.  You probably won’t owe any actual income tax, but if no tax was being withheld from your paychecks, there is a good chance you will at least owe the 15.3% self employment (SE) tax.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

 

Q:

Subject: Rental property

 

LOve reading your blog!!!

 

i inherited my mothers house when she died.   now renting it out.   how do i figure out the depreciation on it for my taxes?   mother bought it for 61,000 in 1987 but city has it assessed for 135,000.

keep up the posts!!!

A:

Your cost basis of the inherited property is its fair market value at the time your mother passed away.  If an estate tax return was filed for her, you would use the value shown on the 706.  If the estate was small enough not to require a 706, you should ask a local Realtor or appraiser to give you a value.  Most Realtors will run a CMA (competitive market analysis) for you for free, hoping that you will remember that when you decide to sell the property.

I’m glad that you like my blog; but it seems that you are missing one of the main themes that I thought I was stressing; that trying to navigate the tax world without the assistance of at least one competent professional tax advisor is extremely dangerous. Your question, which any experienced tax pro could help you with, proves that you need to start working with one ASAP. 

Just establishing the overall fair market value of the property is just the first step.  Next, you will need to allocate that between the values for the non-depreciable land and the depreciable building and components (appliances, fixtures and other separately identifiable items).  Any experienced tax pro can help you with that, as well as with maximizing all of the other kinds of deductions that are available for rental properties.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

thanks for the quick response. i guess i should get a tax pro like you said. you know what they say — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!!!!

 

Q:

Subject: 2008 Long Term Capital Gain

I understand that the 2008 LT CG tax rate for filers in the 10 % 15% bracket is to be 0% on the LT CG.

Assume the following:
Filing status Married, filing jointly
Taxable income of $30,000 (before LT CG)
LT CG (held over 15 years) $700,000

Is the entire $700,000 LTCG at 0% tax

             OR

is it just the amount from $30,000 up to the (approx) $62,000 taxed at 0%, then at the 15% rate for LTCG for filers in the brackets above 15%

If the filer could arrange to keep their 2008 taxable income in the 10 or 15% bracket(before LT CG) this would seem to be an outstanding opportunity to sell highly appreciated capital assets in 2008.

OR, am I missing the real facts here?

A:

It is a common misconception that the special low tax rates for LTCGs apply to the full amount of gain.  A you can see in the Schedule D tax worksheet, that isn’t the case.  The various tax rates are applied sequentially, to the income in the different lower tax rate brackets.

In their divine wisdom, and as part of their smoke and mirrors style of budgeting, our imperial rulers in DC have given a special deal for only 2008 LTCGs, where the gain that would normally be subject to a 5% rate will be given a zero percent rate.  This means that you would use the worksheet and substitute 0% wherever it shows 5%.  The thresholds would also need to be adjusted for guesstimated inflation over the next few years. 

It’s always possible that this one year special deal will be either repealed or even extended.  it is difficult to predict what our rulers will do.

Assuming it is in place when 2008 rolls around,  the best way to really exploit this break would be to do what you can to get your non-LTCG taxable income as low as possible.  A good professional tax advisor can help you with the many ways in which to accomplish this.

I hope this clears up your confusion.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

 

Q:

Kerry,

 I think I have asked you before and apologise if you have already answered me.  I’m involved in a couple LLC and a couple Sub S Corporations. Currently they are all loosing money. ie interest, dev costs, etc. 06 will produce a big profit from one of the sub s’s. I am about to enter into another partnership. My attorney tells me he see’s absolutely no difference in the two from a liability point of view.  Do you feel there is a difference from a tax point of view?

A:

If the LLC chooses to be taxed as either a partnership or S corp, it is treated exactly the same for tax purposes as a regular S corp is.

Kerry

 

Q:

I  came across your website when looking for Tips on Quicken and there they were –

Can you answer a question possibly for me?  years ago I set up Quicken incorrectly and set it up literally by “Accounts” – meaning my various bank accounts !!!  since incorporating 2 years ago, now a nightmare for reports –

If I set up all the accounts correctly now, will I lose all the account info now already set up for years???

Thanks for any help you might send to this accounting-inept mind !!!

A:

I’m not really sure what you mean in regard to setting up your Quicken “By Accounts.” 

To clean things up properly, there are some very basic things you need to do.  First is to import all of your Quicken data into QuickBooks and use that program instead.  I have a lot of info on my website as to why QB is vastly superior.

Next, you should be coordinating your QB chart of accounts and reports with your professional tax preparer and what s/he uses for the business tax returns.  You should be able to modify the pre-existing accounts to the proper types, including merging redundant accounts, without losing any historical data.

Any accounting pro who has experience with QB should be able to help you do this.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter