First time Landlord needs info on Taxes

[Ricardo P.]

This is my first year doing taxes while having my investment property. Property is located in Ca. Long story short I would think there would be some sort of refund i would receive for paying high property taxes,repairs,evictions and interest rate ect. I just spoke to my cpa and he’s telling me I owe money to the government??? Meaning I get $0 from my W2 and $0 from my investment... 

Does this sound right? 

Or is this the real nature of invesment properties?

Or should I just look for a different CPA?

[Greg Scott]

Ricardo:

You haven't provided enough information to even guess if you should or should not owe taxes.

How your CPA could be right:  

If you own the house free & clear so you have high cash flow, and depreciation would not be enough to offset that, you could owe income tax.  You also didn't specify if this was income tax or property tax.  California is terrible on both of those, but you will always owe property taxes.  You can do a lot to offset income taxes but not as much for property taxes.

How your CPA could be wrong:  

Some CPAs specialize in just doing taxes for W2 earners.  A CPA that understands real estate will know how to maximize deductions.  For example, you could do a cost segregation analysis to increase your depreciation deductions to wipe out income tax.  Ask your CPA if he owns any rental real estate himself.