Real Estate Accountant

[Robert T.]

Hi: I am in Texas and have organized our investment properties into several LLCs. For many years my spouse & myself have been filing 1040s jointly with pass down income from the LLCs and separate1065s for each LLCs. It appears from talking to a friend that it may be possible to just file a 1040 and thus omit the tedious 1065s and 1120- one apparently has to do schedule E for the pass through income for the 1040. Texas is a community property state and thus the spouse partner LLC may be considered a disregarded entity? Normally, we would approach our CPA for this but he is retiring and we would like to seek out a new CPA anyway who is comfortable with doing this transition. Has anyone good experiences with a reliable CPA and can recommend one that specializes on real estate investors?

[Curt Riffel]

Are you also looking to close down the entities? I would likely file Final federal forms 1065 and 1120-S and close down the entities with the State of Texas. I would then be comfortable reporting the income directly on your 1040 on Sch E. I would be wary of leaving open some LLCs or S-Corps and dealing with a headache later. 

You could have a Single Member LLC on your 1040 return as well if you want to run everything through an LLC still.