rental property tax example - please advise!

[Corey Demuth]

I am still a bit confused about the whole topic of tax benefits from having rental property. Can anyone take a look at this example, and let me know if I am doing this correctly?

An investor has a full-time job making 60k. He buys a 2-family property for $60,000; the mortgage payment including tax and insurance is $550/month. The total rent he collects between the two apartments is $750/month. (so the profit is $200/month.)

For the sake of this example, let's just assume that in the beginning, of that $550 payment, $300/month is going toward interest on the mortgage.

So my calculations would be that the rental profit is 2400 for the year, which is considered a capital gain.

The interest paid would allow the investor to deduct 3600.

Furthermore, the building can be depreciated over 27.5 years. So, 1/27.5 * $60,000 = 2181.81, which should be the amount he can deduct for depreciation each year. So in fact, between the interest deduction and the depreciation deduction, he can actually deduct 3600+2181.81, or 5781.81. Subtract the 2400 profit he made by collecting rent, and you have $3381.81 that he can deduct - so essentially just by having this rental property he is shielding 3381.81 of his salary from his regular job, from being taxed. And on top of that, he makes $2400.

Am I correct or am I horribly misunderstanding how this all works? Also, did I miss out on any other potential tax benefits the investor could be getting in this example?

Thanks!

[J Scott]

First, I'm not a CPA or an accountant, so if anyone disagree with me, seriously consider the fact that they may be right and I may be wrong... :)

Depending on how the property is held (business entity or personally) will impact this analysis a bit. But here are the basics assuming he owns the property personally and all income/expenses go right onto his personal 1040...

The property equity, any rehab costs (prior to renting) and capital expenses are all considered Fixed Assets and go right to the Balance Sheet (in other words, they don't count towards income or expense until sold).

All rents, application fees, late fees, etc (basically, all income) are considered Income in the year it was received and gets added to the top line of your tax return.

All expenses -- taxes, insurance, maintenance, property management, interest on your loan payments, etc -- are considered Expenses, and are subtracted from your top-line income before your tax is calculated.

Likewise, depreciation is an Expense and is subtracted from the top line income. But, remember, you're only allowed to depreciate the cost of the dwelling, not the land -- so make sure you subtract out the land value (generally 10-25%) before determining depreciation amounts. Rental property is depreciated over 27.5 years.

So, in your example, the gross rents for the year are about $750 * 12 = $9000 (this assumes no vacancy loss). If he collected any other money -- late fees, application fees, etc -- these would be added in to the income as well.

So, $9000 is added to the person's top line income.

Let's assume 33% of the gross rents went to expenses (the 50% Rule would indicate more, but remember that includes vacancy and capital expenses, which aren't really Expenses in this calculation). That means $3000 was spent on expenses.

Additionally, he paid $550/month in mortgage, of which a percentage is interest. Let's say an average of $400/month of that payment went to interest. So, there is an interest expense of $400 * 12 = $4800.

Lastly, let's say that of the $60K property, 80% is the dwelling and 20% is the land value. So, he can depreciate 1/27 of ($60K * 80%) = $1777.77. For this example, let's round to $1800 for depreciation. That as well is considered an Expense.

So, total Expenses are:

$3300 + $4800 + $1800 = $9900

In total, we have $9000 in Income and $9900 in Expenses, so the net loss for this property would be $900. That $900 would come off his total income, and if he were in the 25% tax bracket, would result in a tax savings of about $225 for the year.

Hopefully I did that right...I'm sure someone else will check my work... :)

And again, I'm not a CPA or a tax professional in any way, shape or form...