The Landlord Lens - Tax Deductions

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

It's that time of the year again—tax season! In this episode of Be A Better Landlord, we’re diving deep into tax deductions for Landlords. Whether you're a seasoned property owner or new to the real estate game, understanding how to navigate tax deductions is key to maximizing your profits and ensuring your investment works harder for you.Simplify your bookkeeping and financial reporting with our rental property accounting software: https://www.turbotenant.com/rental-accounting

I'm Jonathan. This is Krista, and we're here to help you be a better landlord. All right, Krista, well, it is everyone's favorite time of year, tax season. So let's talk about the fun part of taxes, which is deductions. What is a deduction? Sure. A deduction is a way to lower your taxable income based on things that you've already purchased or paid for throughout the year. Excellent. Okay, can you give a few examples? Absolutely. So interest that you're paying on your student loans, if that's applicable, that is tax deductible as are child taxes.

If you're a business owner, anything that you're paying for in regards to your business, like advertising costs, mileage if you're traveling property to property, there's a whole host of different things that you should be looking out for. Yeah. And as landlords know, there's a lot of expenses that go into running their business. So all of those things are potentially tax deductions. Absolutely. Okay.

They just need to prove it. Yes. Keep your receipts, document everything. So what I would recommend is, leveraging TurboTenance mobile app where you can take pictures of the receipt from whatever you're purchasing. Make sure that you have information like when the purchase was made. Typically what it was made for.

So for example, if I take a picture of our Chili's receipt, I would say business meal with Jonathan on 214 and have all of that on the actual receipt, snap the picture with the amount that you spent and make sure that you are keeping that so you can send everything over to your CPA. or if you're really going hard on that DIY course, you're doing it yourself, but you're going to need all that documentation to back it up. Yeah.

And the documentation, that can get a little hairy because a year, it turns out, has quite a few days in it. Don't know how many exactly. It's a whole song about that. And where should people keep these receipts? You mentioned the mobile app. Where does that actually go?

So if you are using the mobile app, it will go directly into your TurboTenant account. There is a document section. It's really nice, easy to use. You can store everything there. If you are someone who likes to really cover their bases, I would say make sure that you have all of these receipts saved both digitally and physically, maybe in a file folder. That way, again, if something were to go wrong, the internet breaks, Y2K was real, but it was just delayed by many years. You have an option to go back to your receipts and claim all of those deductions.

Okay. Are there other tools people could use specific to rental properties? Absolutely. We have a really nice integrated software called REI Hub that is built for landlords and anyone who files a Schedule E form. That's where you report rental property income. So what I love about this program is that it makes it really simple to just in one click, download your tax packet, download any kind of reports you need so that you can either use it yourself or pass it along to your CPA and become their favorite client. It makes it super simple to get organized, stay organized, and maximize your deductions, which I think we could all get on. board with. Yeah, that sounds like a really easy way to organize things. Yeah, and it's really

cost-effective too. So currently, we are running a deal where you can get started for as low as $7.50 per month. And the nice thing about buying into a service like that, it is also tax deductible. So keep your receipts, and you can actually use that at the end of the year, the end of the tax year as well. Awesome. Where can people learn more about this? Sure. So you can head on over to your TurboTenant account, log in to your portal and go over to the accounting tab. If you want to use our free accounting system in terms of organizing your expenses, things like that, I welcome you to do that. The nice thing with REI Hub is that if you use that service, it'll pull all of your information

from your TurboTenant account into your RIA Hub system, where you can then download reports with a click. You can also find information about that integrated software there. Start poking around, ask questions. If anything pops up, reach out to our wonderful. support team. You can chat with them directly through that portal and ask anything that you need to. Awesome. This sounds much better than an old filing cabinet crammed with weird handwritten receipts. Yes. It 3,000% is it really brings your business to a new height of professionalism.

And again, it helps you to really maximize your deductions because you're not leaving anything on the table. You're organized without having to think about it, which is frankly my favorite way to be organized. Absolutely. All right, Krista. Well, thanks for talking deductions with us. Good luck to all of you during tax season. If you have any other tips, leave them in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.