Here are my 7 favorite tax write offs when it comes to owning real estate or investment property and a few examples of how each of them apply. Enjoy! Feel free to add me on Snapchat / Instagram: GPStephan
Owning real estate is much more than just owning a cash producing property that provides monthly profits, what makes it really unique against almost every other investment is the tax write offs associated with it. In real estate, a return could be calculated in so many different ways besides “I get $1000 per month in rent.” What makes real estate really special is that you could often make money every month, but on paper show a loss…and this cancels out your tax obligation. Here are some of the tax write offs that make real estate a phenomenal investment.
1. Mortgage interest write off - On an investment property, the interest that you pay on your mortgage is a write off against your rental income. On a primary residence, the mortgage interest on the first $750,000 could also be a write off, potentially saving thousands in owed taxes.
2. Property taxes - This is another deduction you can write off against your rental and personal income. As a primary residence, you’re allowed to deduct the first $10,000 of your property tax against your personal income As an investment property, you can still deduct 100% of your property taxes against your rental income.
3. Depreciation - This is what often leads you to be positive in your bank account each month, but on paper you could show a loss, lowering the amount you’d pay taxes on. With rental property, you’re allowed to depreciate the asset over a certain period of time. Cost segregation analysis can sometimes speed this dramatically. However, keep in mind that because you’re depreciating a property, eventually the tax you depreciate will need to be paid at the time of sale if you DON’T 1031 it, so it’s not a tax avoidance entirely, but this works great if you plan to keep the home as a rental or eventually do a 1031 exchange later on.
4. 1031 exchange. This is a very popular real estate tax benefit that almost every real estate investor uses. This means that you can sell your property and “Exchange” it for a like property of similar or greater value without paying taxes at the time of the same sale. This is how many people can buy and sell millions without ever paying capital gains taxes, as long as they don’t sell and continue 1031 exchanging properties.
5. Capital gains exclusion on a primary residence: As long as you’ve lived in the home for 2 of the last 5 years, you can sell a your primary residence up to $250,000 HIGHER than you bought it for if you’re single, or $500,000 if you’re married, without owning capital gains tax.
6. Cash out refinance - When used against a rental property, you can refinance the extra equity in the property and pull out the profits tax free. Even though this is technically a loan you have to pay back, you’re borrowing from the existing equity and using that money without paying taxes on the money that hit your account. This gets a little more complicated as a primary residence, but on a rental, this is a huge advantage because the new mortgage you pay on the amount pulled out counts against your rental income…so you can use this money for pretty much whatever you want, hopefully just to re-invest.
7. Finally, rental property income is not taxed as self employment income, which carries a 15.3% self employment tax (not fun). But keep in mind this is also dependent on how you hold the property and specific ways you’re treating your income.
Disclosure: I am not a tax consultant or CPA. These are just a few tax advantages I have used myself and I have simplified these significantly for purposes of explaining them on YouTube. Check with your own accountant or CPA because every situation is going to be unique.
For business inquiries or one-on-one real estate investing/real estate agent consulting or coaching, you can reach me at GrahamStephanBusiness @gmail.com
Suggested reading:
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: http://goo.gl/TPTSVC
Your money or your life: https://goo.gl/fmlaJR
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor: https://goo.gl/sV9xtl
How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://goo.gl/1f3Meq
Think and grow rich: https://goo.gl/SSKlyu
Awaken the giant within: https://goo.gl/niIAEI
The Book on Rental Property Investing: https://goo.gl/qtJqFq
Favorite Credit Cards:
Chase Sapphire Reserve - https://goo.gl/sT68EC
American Express Platinum - https://goo.gl/C9n4e3
Owning real estate is much more than just owning a cash producing property that provides monthly profits, what makes it really unique against almost every other investment is the tax write offs associated with it. In real estate, a return could be calculated in so many different ways besides “I get $1000 per month in rent.” What makes real estate really special is that you could often make money every month, but on paper show a loss…and this cancels out your tax obligation. Here are some of the tax write offs that make real estate a phenomenal investment.
1. Mortgage interest write off - On an investment property, the interest that you pay on your mortgage is a write off against your rental income. On a primary residence, the mortgage interest on the first $750,000 could also be a write off, potentially saving thousands in owed taxes.
2. Property taxes - This is another deduction you can write off against your rental and personal income. As a primary residence, you’re allowed to deduct the first $10,000 of your property tax against your personal income As an investment property, you can still deduct 100% of your property taxes against your rental income.
3. Depreciation - This is what often leads you to be positive in your bank account each month, but on paper you could show a loss, lowering the amount you’d pay taxes on. With rental property, you’re allowed to depreciate the asset over a certain period of time. Cost segregation analysis can sometimes speed this dramatically. However, keep in mind that because you’re depreciating a property, eventually the tax you depreciate will need to be paid at the time of sale if you DON’T 1031 it, so it’s not a tax avoidance entirely, but this works great if you plan to keep the home as a rental or eventually do a 1031 exchange later on.
4. 1031 exchange. This is a very popular real estate tax benefit that almost every real estate investor uses. This means that you can sell your property and “Exchange” it for a like property of similar or greater value without paying taxes at the time of the same sale. This is how many people can buy and sell millions without ever paying capital gains taxes, as long as they don’t sell and continue 1031 exchanging properties.
5. Capital gains exclusion on a primary residence: As long as you’ve lived in the home for 2 of the last 5 years, you can sell a your primary residence up to $250,000 HIGHER than you bought it for if you’re single, or $500,000 if you’re married, without owning capital gains tax.
6. Cash out refinance - When used against a rental property, you can refinance the extra equity in the property and pull out the profits tax free. Even though this is technically a loan you have to pay back, you’re borrowing from the existing equity and using that money without paying taxes on the money that hit your account. This gets a little more complicated as a primary residence, but on a rental, this is a huge advantage because the new mortgage you pay on the amount pulled out counts against your rental income…so you can use this money for pretty much whatever you want, hopefully just to re-invest.
7. Finally, rental property income is not taxed as self employment income, which carries a 15.3% self employment tax (not fun). But keep in mind this is also dependent on how you hold the property and specific ways you’re treating your income.
Disclosure: I am not a tax consultant or CPA. These are just a few tax advantages I have used myself and I have simplified these significantly for purposes of explaining them on YouTube. Check with your own accountant or CPA because every situation is going to be unique.
For business inquiries or one-on-one real estate investing/real estate agent consulting or coaching, you can reach me at GrahamStephanBusiness @gmail.com
Suggested reading:
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: http://goo.gl/TPTSVC
Your money or your life: https://goo.gl/fmlaJR
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor: https://goo.gl/sV9xtl
How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://goo.gl/1f3Meq
Think and grow rich: https://goo.gl/SSKlyu
Awaken the giant within: https://goo.gl/niIAEI
The Book on Rental Property Investing: https://goo.gl/qtJqFq
Favorite Credit Cards:
Chase Sapphire Reserve - https://goo.gl/sT68EC
American Express Platinum - https://goo.gl/C9n4e3
Graham, Thank you so much. You are a treasure trove of information! I thank God for you!
how do you write off down payment for rental company?
Your explanations and examples are very helpful. Thank you for making the complicated world tax deductions understandable and the benefits of owning real estate investments.
But if I understand this correctly you do get the tax break from the morgage but its not so great that it is more then the interest.
Are these tips still relevant?
Now I see how I sound trying to explain real estate investing to some one
TNX GOOD
I sold my apartments for 1.5 mil and did 1031 into a DST. Made sense to create an income stream.
Stumbled upon this video – looks like you might have your chance to buy some cheap Bitcoin!
Graham love the videos, i've been watching them for a long time now. one question i have for you is, what kind of write-offs could i have being a land investor? i've just recently started investing in big tracts of land and flipping them. but i'm starting to get to the point where taxes are going to kill me this year if i don't do something, id love some advice.
Hey Graham, love your videos. You had me with the April Fools prank the other day! Question – I'm a real estate investor doing my tax return, which I plan to submit as proof of income for a mortgage refinance application on my investment property this month. Just wondering, if I claim my investment property mortgage interest as a tax deduction (lowering my adjusted gross income on my tax return), will a loan underwriter add this back in to boost my AGI back up to the pre-mortgage interest deduction amount – since the application purpose is to refi the balance I pay this interest on? Or would it be wise to (illogically) give up the mortgage interest deduction for this particular tax year, so I may have an obviously higher AGI for the sake of the upcoming refi app? FYI – difficult self-employed investor scenario here 😉 Thanks!
Legend
Wow I’ve been watching you for so long yet I never knew all of this was tax deductible
Thumbnail is cringe lol
So if I have a 97,500 mortgage and my payment is each month 860 can I take mines 4% a year for interest ?
And bitcoin
If he only knew what ethereum is at now 😅
Does it sound like graham is trying to talk in a lower voice here?
You explain so good, I was trying to learn all these since 2days ago. But now I learned after watching your video 👍🌺
Bit-coin is down 👎
Depreciation lowers the cost basis of the property, sooo then if you sell higher capital gains unless you sell and roll over to Starker exchange.
As someone who has seen this in action, sometimes paying capital gains is good. Why??!!! Because you can loose out on being able to look and take your time to find the better deal, or better property..
Bitcoin $10,000… LMAO
😡
Hi Graham from the past, I actually really miss quality vids like this if you see this comment.
Also, funny how BTC was on the rise and in a huge bubble when you made this video. And now it seems cheap compared to today.
Great video Graham! I’m going to mention this on my channel!
I am wondering where can one find were all if this is written? How can I check for myself? I want to learn more about the potential tax breaks from investment real-estate and stocks. So where could I go to learn what books to buy?
BTC is at 56k now….I wish I bought some back then now.
“SunCor Financial MPI review” ""
Does this hold true if you’re selling a mobile home on payments. Effectively rent to own