If my CPA would told me last year...

[Jack Zhuang]

Hey BG community,

It's that time of the year again for taxes! Since I only had a W-2 and one rental property income, so it looked straight forward enough to do it all by myself on TurboTax, right? By pure procrastination, I didn't hit the submit button on TurboTax after I finish and by coincidence I finished reading "The Book on Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor" by BiggerPockets and I was mind blown!

So many travel expenses I thought I could write off should not have been written off because I didn't keep the receipts or could not proof they are related to my rental business!! Since IRS is based on guilty until proven innocent mentality, if I am audited, I would never be able to prove my write offs are ordinary and necessary to my business. What a huge mistake I've made! So I quickly asked for a friend's referral to a local CPA and setup an appointment with him tomorrow hoping to get things sorted out before the tax deadline.

How does your CPA advise you on Tax planning? Do you keep your business account and personal account separate? What App or software do you use to track your business expenses?

-Jack