We talkin' bout taxes

[Tucker Cummings]

Just finished reading the book on Tax Strategies for Beginners. Never thought I'd enjoy reading about tax so much! I'm getting ready to read the "Advanced" book but in the meantime, I have a few questions I'm hoping someone might be able to help with:

- If I'm not holding my property title in my LLC, can I still take real estate related deductions on my taxes (mileage, education, meals, other expenses, etc.) or do I have to hold property in an LLC in order to deduct them?

- I have an LLC, but the LLC doesn't hold title. In fact, it doesn't do anything at all. Can I easily just transfer title to my LLC? Any implications?

- For receipts collection, any good apps that make it easy to document receipts to easily be uploaded to Quickbooks or other accounting software?

- Is there anything my wife and I can do to offset our W2 income with deductions, depreciation, or other strategies so that we keep more of our own money? I get crushed by taxes every year because most of my earnings are commission. It's no fun getting taxed 40% all year on commissions and then having to owe more money at tax time... 

My starting point is that my wife and I earned about 190k this year from our primary's (pre tax). We also both contribute to 401k and a roth IRA, & have 2 investment properties that we bought in December 2019 and October 2020, with 2021 being a big scale up year for us.

[Basit Siddiqi]

@Tucker Cummings

You mentioned you and your wife both making above $190,000. This is above the $150,000 threshold which allows you to offset rental losses against other income.
However, you shouldn't be discouraged and think that real estate is not helping you out from a tax standpoint.

Hopefully your real estate investments are cash-flow positive and being wiped out by depreciation and it is not adding on to your taxes.

Regarding deductions - you are entitled to deductions regardless if the property is held in your personal name or in an LLC.