No Tax Benefits From Owning Properties?

[Joe Delgrosso]

Just heard back from my tax accountant and I was expecting some good news that we were getting a positive return from owning 6 different rental properties (bought 2 in 2019) but instead he tells me that we're just breaking even. 

The reason being that we make too much from our W2 jobs to claim depreciation. The income we make from the properties is all written off from the expenses we claim, which is great. But I was hoping to get a return. 

Any thoughts on this? Is he missing something? I know I'm probably being vague, but I'm tax illiterate. 

[Adam Rasmussen]

It sounds like you are running into the passive activity rules. If you make over $150k in other income you cannot have a net loss for your rental activity. Any losses you have will be carried forward to future years. 

You are able to take a maximum of $25k to offset your W2 income if your income is below $100k. Once you are in the $100k - $150k range, your losses are limited. If you are above $150k, you cannot take any rental losses against your W2 income.