5 TAX SAVING TIPS FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS
Taxes are one of life's many certainties, especially for real estate investors who spend millions of hard earned cash yearly on housing tax. However, paying housing or property task shouldn't be such a painful ordeal if you can put a few of the tax saving tips in this article into practice. Hence, to maximize your task savings on your property investment make sure you have streamlined your investing operation appropriately. Below are five tax saving tips every real estate investor should know:
Hire the services of a good accountant
Having a good and competent CPA is necessary if you must maximize your tax savings as a real estate investor. Unless of course, you enjoy spending your hard earned cash, your best bet to maximizing your property tax saving is by finding a very competent CPA who is conversant with the real estate market and also specializes in real estate tax. Although there are so many unqualified CPA's that can make a mess on your investments, finding a qualified accountant is non-negotiable if your investment must keep more money. A good CPA can help you make an informed decision as well as recommend other team players that can make your investment a profitable venture.
Get organized
Many real estate investors today pay so much in tax because they have refused to keep accurate records of business dealings. As a real estate investor who wants to maximize tax savings, you must ensure that you keep a strict record of all financial transactions. One thing that has proven very helpful in this regard is finding a filling system that works for you. To this end, you must keep an accurate record of all your real estate investment just as IRS advises.
Hold Short Term and Long Term Investments in Different Entities
Having located a qualified CPA who understand the dynamics of real estate investments, the next step you should take is separating your short term investment from your long term investment. As you would agree, flipping, rehabbing or wholesaling are essentially a short term property investment while owning a rental property is typically a long term property investment. Opting for any of this two property investment options can have an enormous impact on your property tax. Hence you must ensure you have a qualified CPA that will help you figure out which property investment strategy is perfect for you.
Figure out overlooked deductions
Overlooked deductions are one of the reasons most real estate investors are paying heavily for property tax. Nonetheless, a good, reliable and qualified CPA that is familiar with real estate investment can help you locate and cut down your overall tax bill. As such, one question every real estate investor should always ask is why pay more when you don’t have to? A perfect way to cut down overlooked deduction is to:
• Cut off home/office expenses
• Write off mileage cost from investment
• Reduce business entertainment cost
• Cut down on unnecessary travel expenses etc.
Prevent capital gains taxes
One smart way every real estate mogul can save money on taxes is to avoid capital gains taxes. For instance, if you own a property, you can sell that property without having to pay capital gains taxes. This is made possible by section 1031 which states that when you reinvest the proceeds of the sale of your property in another property, then you are exempted from paying capital gain taxes.