Category: KRS Blog

Tax Rules for Vacation Home Rentals

Posted by Simon Filip on July 23, 2019

Get the most from your vacation home rental property by knowing the tax rules

Summer is the time of family vacations, sun, sand and beaches. It’s also the time when a vacation home may be used to generate additional cash flow through rental.

Part-time landlords need to remember that, in many cases, the Internal Revenue Service expects them to report the extra income.

Short-Term Rentals

In general, if a taxpayer rents their vacation home for fewer than 14 days out of the year, the income is tax free and the property is considered a personal residence. Under this scenario, taxpayers are not required to report any rental income on their tax return. However, expenses attributable to the rental cannot be deducted, such as cleaning fees or rental commissions.

More than 14 Rental Days

If a taxpayer’s rental days are above the 14-day threshold, the income is required to be reported. Under this scenario, a taxpayer can also deduct a variety of direct rental expenses such as licenses, advertising and rental commissions.

Other expenses such as repairs, mortgage interest, property taxes and utilities are deductible on a prorated basis based upon the number of days a taxpayer rented the home out.

Claiming Expenses on Rental Property

When filing taxes on a rental property, an individual will use IRS Schedule E: Supplemental Income and Loss. The IRS provides an extensive listing of deductions in Publication 527, however common expenses include:

Real Estate/Property Taxes
Insurance
Cleaning
Repairs and Maintenance
Depreciation
Legal and Professional Fees
Advertising
Utilities
Commissions

We’ve got your back

For additional information on the taxability of your vacation home rental, contact Simon Filip, the Real Estate Tax Guy, at sfilip@krscpas.com or (201) 655-7411.

Home Office Expense Deduction for a Self-Employed Taxpayer

Posted by Sean Faust, CPA on July 17, 2019

Does your home office qualify for a tax deduction?

If you’re self-employed and work out of an office in your home and you satisfy certain strict rules, you will be entitled to favorable “home office” deductions. These deductions against your business income include the following:

Direct expenses of the home office – for example, the costs of painting or repairing the home office, depreciation deductions for furniture and fixtures used in the home office, etc.; and
Indirect expenses of maintaining the office – for example, the properly allocable share of utility costs, depreciation, insurance, etc., for your home, as well as an allocable share of mortgage interest and real estate taxes.

In addition, if this office is your “principal place of business” under the rules discussed below, the costs of traveling between it and other work locations in your business are deductible transportation expenses, rather than nondeductible commuting costs.

Tests to determine home office deductibility

You may deduct your home office expenses if you meet any of the three tests described below: (1) the principal place of business test, (2) the place for meeting patients, clients, or customers test, or (3) the separate structure test. You may also deduct the expenses of certain storage space if you qualify under the rules described further below.

Principal place of business

You’re entitled to home office deductions if you use your home office, exclusively and on a regular basis, as your principal place of business. Your home office is your principal place of business if it satisfies either a “management or administrative activities” test, or a “relative importance” test. You satisfy the management or administrative activities test if you use your home office for administrative or management activities of your business, and if you meet certain other requirements. You meet the relative importance test if your home office is the most important place where you conduct your business, in comparison with all the other locations where you conduct that business.

Home office used for meeting patients, clients, or customers

You’re entitled to home office deductions if you use this office, exclusively and on a regular basis, to meet or deal with patients, clients, or customers. The patients, clients or customers must be physically present in the office.

Separate structures

You’re entitled to deductions for a home office, used exclusively and on a regular basis for business, if it is located in a separate unattached structure on the same property as your home – for instance, an unattached garage, artist’s studio, workshop, or office building.

Space for storing inventory or product samples

If you’re in the business of selling products at retail or wholesale, and if your home is your sole fixed business location, you can deduct home expenses allocable to space that you use regularly (but not necessarily exclusively) to store inventory or product samples.

How much can you deduct?

The amount of your home office deduction is based on the amount of square footage allocated to your office space. There are two methods to choose from; Simplified Method and Regular Method.

Simplified Method

The simplified method for determining this deduction is straightforward: You receive a deduction of $5 per square foot, up to 300 square feet (the deduction can’t exceed $1,500).

Regular Method

You determine the deduction by figuring out the percentage of your home used for business. Then apply the resulting percentage to the total direct & indirect expenses discussed above.

To demonstrate, if your home is 2,000 square feet and your home office is 500 square feet, you use 25% of your home for business. You’re allowed to deduct 25% of the above-mentioned expenses against your income. The remaining 75% of qualified expenses carry over to Schedule A, if you itemize. These costs include property taxes and mortgage interest.

Someone with a larger office and higher expenses might benefit from the regular method of determining the home office deduction compared to the standard method.

We’ve got your back

At KRS, our CPAs can help you utilize the home office deduction to maximize potential tax savings. Give us a call at 201.655.7411 or email me at sfaust@krscpas.com.

What You Need to Know to Deduct Medical Expenses

Posted by Sean Faust, CPA on June 25, 2019

Deducting expenses for medical and dental care is easier when you know the rules

If you itemize your deductions for a taxable year on Form 1040, Schedule A Itemized Deductions, you may be able to deduct unreimbursed expenses you paid that year for medical and dental care for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. You may deduct only the amount of your total medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income in 2018 and 10% beginning in 2019.

What qualifies as a medical expense?

Qualifying costs, which include many items other than hospital and doctor bills, often amount to much larger figures than expected. Below are some items you should take into account in determining your medical expenses:

Health insurance premiums

The cost of health insurance is a medical expense. This item, by itself, can total thousands of dollars a year. Even if your employer provides you with health coverage, you can deduct the portion of the premiums that you pay. Long-term care insurance premiums are also included in medical expenses, subject to specific dollar limits based on age. However, pre-tax insurance premiums paid by an individual are not deductible medical expenses.

Transportation

The cost of getting to and from medical treatment is a deductible medical expense. This includes taxi fares, public transportation, or the cost of using your own car. Car costs can be calculated at 20¢ a mile for miles driven in 2019 (18¢ a mile for miles driven in 2018), plus tolls and parking. Alternatively, you can deduct your actual costs, such as for gas and oil (but not your general costs such as insurance, depreciation, or maintenance).

Therapists, nurses, etc.

The services of individuals other than doctors can qualify as long as the services relate to a medical condition and aren’t for general health. For example, costs of physical therapy after knee surgery would qualify, but not costs of a fitness counselor to tone you up. Amounts paid for certain long-term care services required by a chronically ill individual also qualify as deductible medical expenses.

Eyeglasses, hearing aids, dental work, psychotherapy, prescription drugs

Deductible medical expenses include the cost of glasses, hearing aids, dental work, psychiatric counseling, and other ongoing expenses in connection with medical needs. Purely cosmetic expenses (e.g., a “nose job”) don’t qualify. Prescription drugs (including insulin) qualify, but over the counter items such as aspirin and vitamins don’t. Neither do amounts paid for operations or treatments that are illegal under federal law (such as marijuana), even if state or local law permits the procedure or drug.

Smoking-cessation programs

Amounts paid for participation in a smoking-cessation program and for prescribed drugs designed to alleviate nicotine withdrawal are deductible medical expenses. However, non-prescription nicotine gum and certain nicotine patches aren’t deductible.

Weight-loss programs

A weight-loss program is a deductible medical expense if undertaken as treatment for a disease diagnosed by a physician. The disease can be obesity itself or another disease, such as hypertension or heart disease, for which the doctor directs you to lose weight. It’s a good idea to get a written diagnosis before starting the program. Deductible expenses include fees paid to join the program and to attend periodic meetings. However, the cost of low-calorie food that you eat in place of your regular diet isn’t deductible.

Dependents and others

You can deduct the medical costs paid on behalf of dependents, such as your children. Additionally, you may be able to deduct medical costs you pay for an individual, such as an elderly parent or grandparent, who would qualify as your dependent except that he has too much gross income or files jointly. In most cases, the medical costs of a child of divorced parents can be claimed by the parent who pays them, regardless of who gets the dependency exemption.

We’ve got your back

At KRS, our CPAs can help you identify deductible medical expenses to maximize potential tax savings. Give us a call at 201.655.7411 or email me at sfaust@krscpas.com.

SALT Workarounds Squashed

Posted by Simon Filip on June 14, 2019

$10k Limit on SALT Deductions Stands

On Tuesday the Treasury Department issued final regulations that officially prohibit high-tax states like SALT Workarounds Squashed New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut from utilizing workarounds to evade the new $10,000 limit on state and local tax (“SALT”) deductions.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act capped at $10,000 the amount of state and local tax payments that taxpayers could deduct from their federal returns. In response, a number of state governments enacted or proposed workarounds to find a way to remove the economic pain of the cap.

In the workaround, a state resident could, instead of paying state property taxes, choose to donate to a state-created charitable fund, for example, $40,000. The resident would then get to write off the $40,000 as a charitable donation on his or her federal taxes and receive a state tax credit for some of that donation, easing the burden of the lower write-off for their SALT levy.

The regulations will allow taxpayers to receive a tax write-off equal to the difference between the state tax credits they receive and their charitable donations. That means the taxpayer who makes a $40,000 charitable donation to pay property taxes and receives a $25,000 state tax credit would only be entitled to a charitable write off of $15,000 on his or her federal tax bill.

The Treasury indicated it would continue to evaluate the issue and release further guidance if necessary.

We’ve got your back

With Simon Filip, the Real Estate Tax Guy, on your side, you can focus on your real estate investments while he and his team take care of your accounting and keep you up to speed on the latest tax developments. Contact him at sfilip@krscpas.com or 201.655.7411 today.

Real Estate in Your IRA: A Good Idea?

Posted by Simon Filip on April 22, 2019

Real estate can be a great investment, and many people don’t know they can also put the property into their IRAs.

real estate and your ira However, they have to be careful: one small mistake and an IRA’s tax advantages disappear.

So what are the rules to follow to have a qualified real estate purchase?

You can’t mortgage the property.
You can’t work on the property yourself — you’ve got to pay an independent party to do any repairs.
You don’t get the tax breaks if the property operates at a loss. You can’t claim depreciation either.
All costs associated with the property must be paid out of your IRA and all income deposited into the IRA. You can find yourself in a bind if there isn’t enough cash in the IRA to deal with a major property expense.
You can’t receive any personal benefit from the property — you can’t live in it or use it in any way. It has to be strictly for investment purposes. So that vacation property you’re considering buying or a house to rent to your kids — not allowable.

More rules for real estate in IRAs

Any investment made by your IRA must be considered an arm’s-length transaction: You can’t use money in your IRA to buy or sell real estate to or from yourself or family members. You can’t receive any indirect benefit either — you can’t pay yourself or a family member to be the property manager.

For a traditional IRA, you must take required minimum distributions at 70 1/2 and that applies with real estate as well. It can be awfully hard to sell real estate off in portions, so then how do you cover the required distributions without cash? These are problems you need to solve before you start your retirement investing. However, you can roll over money from the sale of one property to the purchase of another without any tax consequences, inside the IRA.

Three more points to weigh when thinking about investing in real estate IRAs:

Your IRA cannot purchase a property that you currently own. IRS regulations don’t allow transactions that are considered self-dealing. They don’t allow your self-directed IRA to buy property from or sell property to any disqualified person — including yourself.
A real estate investment needs to be titled in the name of your IRA, not to you personally. All documents related to the investment must be titled correctly to avoid delays.
Real estate in an IRA can be purchased without 100 percent funding from your IRA. You can use undivided interest and partnering with others.

For more, see my post, “Using a Self-Directed IRA to Buy Real Estate.”

We’ve got your back

There are a lot of working parts to keep in mind if you want to hold real estate in your IRA, and it might not be right for everyone. With Simon Filip, the Real Estate Tax Guy, on your side, you can focus on your real estate investments while he and his team take care of your accounting and taxes. Contact him at sfilip@krscpas.com or 201.655.7411 today.

Use the Increased Federal Estate and Gift Tax Exemption to Transfer Business Ownership Interests

Posted by Gerald A. Shanker on April 17, 2019

Take advantage of this window of opportunity for tax-free wealth transfer

Use the Increased Federal Estate and Gift Tax Exemption to Transfer Business Ownership Interests The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 expanded the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $11.2 million per person, or $22.4 million for a married couple.

Under the Act, these higher limits are applicable through December 31, 2025. On January 1, 2026 the limits return to $5 million per person, adjusted for inflation.

These changes present a significant but temporary opportunity for tax-free wealth transfer, including gifts of ownership interests in the family business. Also, in certain circumstances valuation discounts may further reduce the value of the gifted business interest, which would facilitate larger gifts while remaining within the exemption amount. These gifts will also qualify for the annual exclusion, which currently stands at $14,000 per recipient and may also be split with your spouse, resulting in $28,000 per recipient annual gifts that do not reduce your lifetime exemption.

Gifting strategies

Business owners are often reluctant to gift business ownership interests because they are concerned about losing control of the business, or do not want to make gifts to minor children. There are many ways to overcome this problem. The most common solutions are to gift only non-voting shares and include restrictions on their sale or transfer, or to gift the shares to a trust of which you or your spouse are trustee.

Conventional gifting strategy is to transfer assets that are likely to appreciate in the future. That way, the asset is transferred at a low value and appreciates in the hands of the recipient. The first step in this process is to identify the assets to be transferred and determine their value. If you are considering transfer of an ownership interest in a business, it would be prudent to have that business valued by a qualified business appraiser.

We’ve got your back

Although 2025 seems like a long way off, you never know what changes may occur. Although it is unlikely that tax laws will change after the mid-term election, you never know what the tax law changes will be after the 2020 presidential election. This is great opportunity to transfer assets at little or no estate and gift tax cost. If this is interesting to you, there is no reason to delay. Contact your attorney or CPA and start the process now, before this opportunity is gone.

Capital Gains and Losses: How Do They Work?

Posted by Maria T. Rollins on April 9, 2019

Selling a capital asset results in a gain or loss and impacts your income taxes.

How do capital gains and losses work? A capital gain is a profit made when you as an individual or business sell a capital asset — investments or real estate, for instance — for a higher cost than its purchase price. A capital loss is incurred when there’s a decrease in the capital asset value compared with its purchase price. Almost everything you own and use for personal or investment purposes is a capital asset: a home, personal-use items like furnishings, and collectibles.

A capital gain may be short term (one year or less) or long term (more than a year). The capital gain must be claimed on income taxes. While capital gains are generally associated with stocks and mutual funds due to their volatility, a capital gain can occur on any security sold for a higher price than the price that was paid for it. Unrealized gains and losses, sometimes referred to as paper gains and losses, reflect an increase or decrease in an investment’s value but haven’t yet triggered a taxable event.

The profit you realize when you sell a capital asset at a profit is your gain over basis paid. Basis is often defined as the original price plus any related transaction costs; basis also may refer to capital improvements and cost of sale. Capital losses are used to offset capital gains of the same type: short-term losses are deducted against short-term gains, for example.

Capital gains and losses for businesses

A business may gain or lose money in two ways: It can make a profit on its sales activities or lose money by spending more than it brings in from sales. And, of course, it can gain or lose money based on its investments or sales of assets — items of value that the business owns.

Each type is taxed differently. Profits are taxed as ordinary income and at regular business or personal tax rates. Gains or losses on investments or the sale of assets are taxed as capital gains or losses, but it can depend on the type of business. When expensive equipment is involved, businesses have to consider depreciation, which takes into account the equipment’s declining value over its useful lifetime.

Capital gains and losses can come into play when a business writes off an asset, taking it off its balance sheet. That might be the case with accounts receivable when a debt is owed to the business but is unlikely ever to be paid.

Individual shareholders or business owners who sell their capital shares or owner’s equity in a business also incur capital gains or losses from those sales. Note the following distinction: Operating profits and losses result from the ongoing operations of the business; sometimes called net operating losses for tax purposes, they result from day-to-day operations.

We’ve got your back

Whether you’re buying or selling as an individual or as a business, be sure to keep track of your sales and discuss them with a qualified financial professional. The experts at KRS can help you determine whether you have a gain on loss and its tax implications. Contact managing partner Maria Rollins at mrollins@krscpas.com or 201.655.7411 for a complimentary initial consultation.

Why Business Succession Planning Is Important

Posted by Gerald A. Shanker on March 28, 2019

Your business represents a big part of your wealth. Here’s why you need to protect it with a succession plan.

Many years ago, I had a friend who was a financial advisor and specialized in estate planning. In encouraging people to establish or update their planning, he would tell them that not having a plan was the same as having a plan to leave extra money to the IRS, to the detriment of their intended heirs. The same goes for business succession planning. Not having a succession plan doesn’t mean that you will never retire or die, it just means that when you do there will most likely be a dispute and a judge or mediator will decide what happens to your business.

Wouldn’t it be much better if you established a plan for your business?

There are many reasons why a business succession plan is important. For many business owners, the business represents most or a significant portion of their wealth. Whether the plan is to keep the business in the family, sell to employees, or sell to an outsider, a written plan will play a big part in a smooth transition, which will preserve the value of your business.

A transition plan will also help you prepare for any unplanned circumstances, such as death, disability, or inability to work. When something bad happens, it is usually too late to execute an effective plan.

Preparing next gen leaders

If the business is being kept in the family or sold to employees, a succession plan will go a long way in preparing the management team or next generation to take over the business. This process must commence long before the transition begins to be successful.

Finally, an effective plan will help you focus on the value of your business and the steps that you can take to increase that value. Many owners are unrealistic about the value of their business, believing that value is simply a multiple of something, the amount they put into the business, or an uninformed guess. The value of a business is based on future cash flow and risk. Good cash flow and low risk translates into high value. What can you do today to increase the value of your business?

We’ve got your back

If you’re ready to plan for business succession but don’t know where to start, contact me at GShanker@krscpas.com.

Audits, Reviews and Compilations: A Summary

Posted by Maria T. Rollins on March 26, 2019

Which financial statement overview you need from your CPA depends on your business and financing needs

Audits, Reviews and Compilations: A Summary You will want to prepare your financial statements in accordance with an accounting framework that’s appropriate for your business. Most of the time, you’ll opt for a CPA to produce your financial statements. Getting an accountant’s blessing is especially useful when you are applying for more credit from a bank.

Financial statements are intended to give you current information on your business’s financial standing so you can make more informed decisions. There are three levels of overview you can choose to take — compilation, review or audit — and what you select will have a lot to do with what your objective is.

The Compilation

According to guidance from the American Institute of CPAs, a compilation is suitable for use by lenders and other outside parties who may appreciate the business’s association with a CPA. There is no assurance here, but the CPA will read the financial statements in light of the financial reporting framework being used and consider whether the financial statements appear appropriate in form and are free from obvious material misstatements.

It may be appropriate when a company is seeking only relatively minor levels of financing and may have significant collateral.

The Review

The next level is a review. According to the AICPA, the review is designed to provide lenders and other outside parties with a basic level of assurance on the accuracy of financial statements. The CPA performs analytical procedures, inquiries and other procedures to obtain limited assurance on the financial statements to provide a user with a level of comfort on their accuracy.

A review might be the right move for companies seeking larger levels of financing and have more complex credit needs.

The Audit

The highest level of assurance is an audit. The CPA performs procedures to obtain “reasonable assurance” (defined as a high but not absolute level of assurance) about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement, according to the AICPA. The CPA is required to obtain an understanding of your business’s internal control and to assess fraud risk. Your CPA is also required to corroborate the amounts and disclosures included in your financial statements by obtaining audit evidence through inquiry, physical inspection, observation, third-party confirmations, examination, analytical procedures and other procedures.

An audit is an annual requirement for publicly held companies and may be advisable for other companies seeking high levels of finance and opening themselves to outside investors.

Required Frequency

How often will you want your CPA to peruse your finances? Overviews can be done in any frequency that is useful to you and your business — monthly, quarterly or annually. Some folks say that your financial statements are more than snapshots of your business but can be seen as resources to tell you where your risks and opportunities are. Financial statements can help you identify and solve potential problems before they compromise the health of your business.

We’ve got your back

Rather than guessing at audit, reviews and compilations, why not let the experts at KRS CPAs help? Learn more about our accounting and assurance services, then contact managing partner Maria Rollins at mrollins@krscpas.com or 201.655.7411 for a complimentary initial consultation.

Does Your Rental Real Estate Activity Qualify for the QBI Deduction?

Posted by Simon Filip on March 11, 2019

Knowing the requirements for Qualified Business Income (QBI) deductions can help you save taxes on your rental real estate

Does Your Rental Real Estate Activity Qualify for the QBI Deduction? The IRS recently issued guidance on the 20% tax deduction for Qualified Business Income (QBI) and rental real estate activity. Here’s what you need to know:

If all the general requirements (which vary based on your level of taxable income) are met, the deduction can be claimed for a rental real estate activity – but only if the activity rises to the level of being a trade or business. An activity is generally considered to be a trade or business if it is regular, continuous, and considerable.

The IRS safe harbor

Because determining whether a rental real estate enterprise meets those criteria can be difficult, the IRS has provided a safe harbor under which such an enterprise will be treated as a trade or business for purposes of the QBI deduction (IRS Notice 2019-7). For this purpose, a rental real estate enterprise is defined as an interest in real property held for the production of rents and may consist of an interest in multiple properties. Commercial and residential real estate may not be part of the same enterprise.

Under the safe harbor, a rental real estate enterprise will be treated as a trade or business if the following requirements are satisfied during the tax year for a rental real estate enterprise:

Separate books and records are maintained to reflect income and expenses for each rental real estate enterprise.
250 or more hours of rental services are performed annually with respect to the rental enterprise. Note that these hours of service do not have to be performed by you personally.
The taxpayer maintains contemporaneous records, including time reports, logs, or similar documents, for: (i) hours of all services performed; (ii) description of all services performed; (iii) dates on which such services were performed; and (iv) who performed the services. Such records are to be made available for inspection at the request of the IRS. The contemporaneous records requirement does not apply to the 2018 tax year.

Rental services defined

For purposes of the safe harbor, rental services include:

Advertising to rent or lease the real estate
Negotiating and executing leases
Verifying information contained in prospective tenant applications
Collection of rent
Daily operation, maintenance, and repair of the property
Management of the real estate
Purchase of materials
Supervision of employees and independent contractors

Real estate not eligible for safe harbor

Some types of rental real estate are not eligible for the safe harbor. Real estate used by the taxpayer (including an owner or beneficiary of passthrough entity) as a residence for any part of the year is generally not eligible for the safe harbor, nor is real estate rented or leased under a triple net lease.

To qualify for the real estate safe harbor in 2019, it is important for you to maintain contemporaneous records starting with the 2019 tax year. I have listed above the information which needs to be tracked as part of the 250 hours of rental services above.

We’ve got your back

As the real estate tax guy, I’m here to assist you in all your real estate accounting matters. If you have questions about the QBI deduction as it applies to your rental real estate, you can reach me at sfilip@krscpas.com or 201.655.7411.