In this 201st episode, Eliot Thomas, Esq., hosts, along with Jeff Webb, CPA, Vice-President of Professional Services at Anderson Business Advisors. The looming filing deadlines in September and October are almost here, but we’ve still got our experts online to help answer your questions. In this episode, you’ll hear answers to questions about HELOCs, when to take social security, the Augusta rule, bad debt, and legacy planning tools, to name a few. Submit your tax question to taxtuesday@andersonadvisors.
Highlights/Topics:
- “What’s the best structure for a management company? C-corporation or partnership? Also, if you were not concerned with obtaining loans, is it more advantageous to have a holding company as an S-corp or a partnership?” – My rec is C Corp, not partnership, the downside is creating passive deductions and income at the same time…and anytime you take those properties back out, and sometimes you have to do that to refinance, that’s a taxable transaction.
- “I have a HELOC on a rental property. I used the funds from it as a gift for a down payment on a home purchase for a family member. Can I use the HELOC interest payments as part of an expense for the rental property?” - You shouldn’t be gifting money from your HELOC. Can you take money out? Yes, but it’s a distribution; it’s not a gift.
- “I’m getting ready to retire in three years. I own a small business that’s a sole proprietorship. As a single proprietor, when I receive social security, will this show up as personal income?” - What you don’t want to do is start taking social security before your full retirement age while still earning money from a wage or from self-employment.
- “Can you use the administrative office and Augusta rule deduction? Or is that considered double dipping when purchasing a property? - commonly referred to as 280A. That’s the corporate meetings. You can rent your house out for 14 days a calendar year—no more—and the income that you receive is tax-free.
- How does bonus depreciation affect a present tax bill for back taxes owed to the IRS? So if we took bonus depreciation in the current year without [...] with the prior liability I have with the IRS.” - IRS will keep taking your refunds before they ever touch your bank accounts until they have that back liability paid up.
- “We made a $5000 business loan. The business shut their doors. How do we document this bad debt? Is it bad debt loss or is it a tax write-off?” - Yes, it is a write-off, but the question is, how do you write off…
- “Is a charitable remainder trust a good legacy and tax planning tool?” - I like the CRUT (Charitable Remainder Unitrust). It’s considered a split-interest trust. The tax returns are very complicated. Don’t ever, ever, ever try to prepare one yourself.
- “I bought a house last year with the intention of renting it out. I bought rental property insurance and never lived in it. It was so expensive to repair everything that I sold it before I could rent it. Can I still deduct my expenses on my taxes? I read that there has to be income to be deductible, and I didn’t get it to a space where it was rentable. Please help. I wasted a lot of money on this house.” –Your intention was to rent. The more you can have to substantiate that intention, the better off you are…But yes, you would write it off as a capital gain or loss…
- “Could you please explain what basis is? I recently became an S-corporation after 12 years as a sole prop. I can take out tax-free my equity injection of money I put in to start the new S-corp, and the inventory that I basically carried over from my sole prop days into the new S-corp. We have no debt on the S-corp, other than the inventory and cash injection. It owes me back.” - Basis typically is your cost…it could be your entity, it could be a property, it could be any kind of asset.
- “Can an LLC taxed as a partnership write off travel and other expenses to intend to invest in seminars such as Alpine CFS, where one would look at several properties, perhaps commit to purchase? - Basically the code says you cannot deduct the expense of any education that is helping you to do something new, that you didn’t do previously.
- Check out our events coming up later this month.
Resources:
Email us at Tax Tuesday
taxtuesday@andersonadvisors.com
Tax and Asset Protection Events
https://andersonadvisors.com/real-estate-asset-protection-workshop-training/?utm_source=aba&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=the-right-structure-for-a-management-company
Anderson Advisors
https://andersonadvisors.com/
Toby Mathis YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@TobyMathis
