Looking for input from fellow investors on how they do taxes

[Matt Gooding]

New investor here who recently closed on my first 4 units. The 4 units are owned under a LLC that is set up as a partnership between me and my wife. I recently met with a CPA to discuss my tax filings for next year and learned a lot. My current understanding of the situation is:

• I will need to file 2 tax returns
• 1 for the LLC (this is mainly serves as information for the IRS as a LLC is a pass through tax entity)
• 1 for my personal. 
• The LLC form with be a 1065 and on this I will put my interest paid to my lender and my deprecation recapture. This will output a k-1 which I will then use on my personal tax returns.

The CPA was very straight forward in saying he would love my business but at the end of the day this isn't that complicated and I could probably do it on my own.

My question is: Are there other investors who do their own filings who are in a similar situation to myself?  If so, what software do you use? Is there anything major I am missing? I imagine the free version of turbo tax does not include all of this functionality. 

[Natalie Kolodij]

Originally posted by @Matt Gooding:

New investor here who recently closed on my first 4 units. The 4 units are owned under a LLC that is set up as a partnership between me and my wife. I recently met with a CPA to discuss my tax filings for next year and learned a lot. My current understanding of the situation is:

• I will need to file 2 tax returns
• 1 for the LLC (this is mainly serves as information for the IRS as a LLC is a pass through tax entity)
• 1 for my personal. 
• The LLC form with be a 1065 and on this I will put my interest paid to my lender and my deprecation recapture. This will output a k-1 which I will then use on my personal tax returns.

The CPA was very straight forward in saying he would love my business but at the end of the day this isn't that complicated and I could probably do it on my own.

My question is: Are there other investors who do their own filings who are in a similar situation to myself?  If so, what software do you use? Is there anything major I am missing? I imagine the free version of turbo tax does not include all of this functionality. 

What state are you based in? 

If you're in a community property state an LLC with only yourself and your wife can still be disregarded for tax purposes and file directly on your 1040.

If not then your CPA is correct and it's a partnership, which will report everything related to the rentals, and then generate a K-1 that gets reported on your 1040. The partnership doesn't pay any tax, it's just the form for all the calculations basically. 

As for setting up depreciation land vs. building- make sure your CPA is investor savy on this, if he just uses a "standard" 70/30 find a new professional. There are several methods the IRS has accepted for this determination, the "we've always used this rule" isn't one of them.