All Forum Posts by: Jeff Nash

Deloitte is an international firm and a part of the "Big 4" accounting firms.  They have a slew of resources and professionals, some in very niche and specialized areas.  It sounds like they will provide the tax compliance or preparation work for you, but my hunch is they will not include planning for free which is where the real value is.  I would inquire about the scope of their services and ask what and how they charge for tax planning.  Normally the Big 4 focuses exclusively on the largest public corporations and private entities as well as high net worth individuals.  If they are not able to help you beyond compliance then you can find a CPA/EA or other tax consultant to bridge the service gap.  

I don’t know the nature and extent of your RE business or layout and set up of your home office space, but you can get plenty of details by looking at Publication 587 which is devoted to this issue, and looking at Form 8829 where the deduction is calculated.  Google them or just got to irs.gov.  You can message me if you have any other questions.  

@Jason Norris

I am curious first about your motivation and reason for raising the question.  What are your concerns?  How is the property going to be purchased (cash only, mortgage, etc)?  I agree with @Becca F.and am inclined to suggest you just keep it simple right now unless you have some compelling reason (might just be personal preference) to want to form an entity such as an LLC (for long term rental nix the corporation straight up as an option).

At this time too I would assemble a good team of professionals like an attorney (or more than one perhaps), tax advisor, and insurance agent and communicate properly so they all are aware of any actions taken or even not taken.

As a side note if this is a concern -  in my opinion, some of the steps or measures  sometimes taken to achieve anonymity might not really be effective or necessary and add cost.  If someone wants to find you, they probably can and will.

Hi Mike, there is no IRS approval letter that you receive (say for like an S-Corp election) but you take the tax position that your transaction meets the merits of a 1031 exchange when Form 8824 is filed. Obviously the exchange documents (agreement, ID letter, etc) and tax return have document retention requirements and those would be needed to facilitate any IRS or state tax inquiries.  

@Stanley J Black

@Adrian Gatlin are these homes financed in your personal name? If so, it might not just be so simple to create an LLC and transfer them out of your personal name, and their mere creation does not necessarily protect you I agree that having proper insurance and perhaps an additional layer of umbrella coverage can be helpful.

@Stanley J Black

 @Linda Weygant gave a thorough and complete explanation of the technical considerations.  To add to my post, It sounds like the admin is your main concern, but if you use accounting software like QuicKBooks Online you would just have 1 or 2 accounts to handle this scenario.  Just set up the rentals as classes in one account and property management company on its own.  With this many properties I assume you are using someone monthly or periodically (ie your CPA firm) to do the accounting.  If it was just a couple of properties I can see (wouldn’t recommend though) you just using Excel if reported on Schedule E where you just show an income statement and not the balance sheet as well. 

Yes, that appears to be good advice from what I can tell and provides asset protection if done properly.  This is a pretty common scenario when you start having a more sizeable portfolio.  

Hi Travis, I am referring you to @Denver McClure.  I can help too at some point but I would start with him.  Thanks!

@Chris Arnold

What is the estimated gain?  I would also want to know how this potential move fits in the context of your overall portfolio to weigh other options, which there could be (i.e.- qualified opportunity fund - i.e.- "roll the gains").  1031 is out as noted by @Dave Foster.