As real estate entrepreneurs, do you know what is our biggest expense? It’s not resident related expenses. It’s not interest on our mortgage. It’s TAXES.
We can strategize to decrease other expenses all we want, but if we really want to make the biggest dent in our costs, we must start focusing on minimizing our taxes.
Diane Gardner, a certified tax coach, launched a business with the specific focus of providing tax advice and offering tax planning for real estate investors of all sizes and experience levels. In our recent conversation, she provided four legal ways to reduce our tax bill.
Related: How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Taxes Via Cost Segregation
The first thing you need to do to decrease your tax bill is make sure you are in the right entity type. Many investors, especially beginners, will hold property in their personal names. Not only does this open you up to potential liability issues down the road, but it also opens you up to paying unnecessary taxes.
Diane said, “by being able to move [properties] over possibly into a different type of entity, whether it be an LLC, an S Corp, a C Corp, or something along those line, they were able to do some tax planning with that, because we have more to work with at that point.” For example, she said, “we can look into setting up a management company and hiring maybe a spouse to work in that company, and then being able to write off potentially 100% of all your out-of-pocket medical costs.”
By being in the right entity, there are a lot of nice tax strategies that will decrease your tax bill, which you wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of by keeping the properties in your personal name.
Another basic tax deduction are automobile related expenses, which Diane said are often overlooked. “Make sure that they’re taking advantage of all their auto deductions, whether they’re taking standard mileage or they’re actually tracking actual costs.”
A third, and also often overlooked tax deduction are meals and entertainment. “How many times are they meeting with potential investors, potential seller, buyers, whatever it might be? Make sure that they’re taking full advantage of that write-off as well.”
This includes meals when interviewing potential team members, meeting with passive investors, hosting an annual real estate conference or monthly meetup group, etc. Just make sure you have a conversation with your CPA to determine what is considered meals and entertainment.
These first three strategies – right entity type, automobile deductions, and meals and entertainment – are simple and should be implemented immediately to decrease your tax bill this year.
A more complicated, but lucrative tax strategy is hiring family members to work in your business. You may know that you can hire your children to work in your business, but did you know you can hire your parents as well? Diane’s mom has been working in her business for years. It helps lessen her tax burden, but secondarily, it benefits her mother by providing her with extra income while her “dignity remains intact because now [she’s] feeling worthwhile and important again.”
Diane said, my mom “needs just that extra little bit each month to make ends meet, so I have hired her to work in my business. She fills out a time sheet, just like all my other staff do. She gets paid an hourly rate. We have her do various things around the office, and in the end, I would be helping her whether it came out of my personal pocket or it came out of my business pocket. But by hiring her to work in my business, I’m able to write off that many, versus I just cut her a check out of my personal account. That’s not a write-off for me.”
This strategy is slightly more complicated than the previous three because there is a little more effort and work required. Diane said, “you do want to have a job description and you want to have and keep a time sheet. And you actually have to set them up on payroll. You can’t just give them money and then at the end of the year to do a journal entry and drop this into my books so I can take it off my taxes. You actually have to pay them payroll and withhold the appropriate taxes, and just really make the point that they are a bonified employee, and that you are paying them a reasonable salary or a reasonable hourly wage.”
Related: Three Tax Strategies You Didn’t Know About to Save You Thousands
Taxes are our single greatest expense as real estate entrepreneurs. To decrease your tax bill for this year, implement the following four strategies:
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.