Multiple Property Accounting and Tax question

[Justin B.]

We've got several properties now and will have a lot more by the end of the year. Does the IRS care about individual property reporting or can you just combine when filing taxes? Accounting and tax filing is time consuming when you have a lot of properties. We are also looking to consolidate our insurance to 1 overall policy that covers all our properties that we can add/remove from pretty easily.  That's not really broken down by property.  I could do my own math or just divide by the number of properties I have at the end of they year I guess, but I'd rather not.  If I submit it like one property for the purposes of taxes (I use TurboTax) as opposed to individual, is that asking for an audit? If it's very common, I'd love to do it that way. Also, from a P&L and Balance Sheet standpoint, every property I get adds several lines to my balance sheet and about 7 lines to my P&L sheet. I'd love to combine if possible.  Is that common in accounting or do you normally always see it broken down by property on P&L's, balance sheets, and tax forms?  I realize me doing it in accounting is my own prerogative, but I want to do it in the way that taxes require it for the ease of doing taxes.

I do have a few things I do that lets me see individual property metrics so I know if one is underperforming and whatnot, I'm just really asking about accounting and tax filings.

[Cameron Skinner]

You can only group properties like duplexes apartment ect. Separate properties need to be broken up for a host of reasons. If you have multiple properties you really need to get an accountant who specializes in rental property or better yet has some himself, I promise turbo tax really bad at rental property especially depreciation. You'll easily save what you pay him in reduced taxes. Ask him how you can qualify as real estate professional and how to calculate cost segregation depreciation on your new purchases.