New investor tax mess up

[James Baker]

I am new investor.

I just bough my Triplex in April of 2019.

I had no idea about tracking expenses or book keeping, so I simply did not.

Come tax time. I go to my recommended CPA and he sends me home because he said it would cost far too much for him to do my taxes, since I am so unorganized.

He instructed me to make an excel spread sheet, print out all my statements and list all my expenses and profit.

I live in my triplex so he told me to list all utilities that I pay for the building as well.

So my issue is #1. I do not know how to use excel and #2. I have so many expenses on different credit cards, credit lines and bank accounts from my small rehab that it’s getting pretty over whelming.

Does anyone have advice on how to make this a little simpler or is it just a long drawn out process? Should I just take my losses?

Thanks!

[Bill B.]

Just use 4 pieces of paper.

One one side of of the 4 sheets of paper write unit #1, unit #2, unit #3(personal), entire building.

Then on unit #1 and unit #2 put total rent income and you’re done with income unless the building made income from laundry or vending machines or some such.

Then just look at all your expenses (for only 2-3 units this should really be almost nothing unless they are in really bad shape.) your biggies will be insurance, property tax and interest. 

Most credit cards will let you download the entire years transactions so you can go through them. If you go very slowly this should take maybe 2 hours. And poof you’re done. 

If you can’t deduct your personal property tax/interest etc because they will add up to less than your personal deduction you ca skip that step/page as well. 

If you can’t get yourself organized, at least use one of your credit cards solely for rental expenses. But I think you’ll find it shouldn’t take long. I do 12 units in 2-3 hours.   you could spend $40 on quicken if you want to go hog wild.