How to pay more in income tax

[Clint Pearcy]

I had lunch with a customer yesterday, who, with no prompt from myself, began telling me about all of the homes he had owned. The last one, he put up for rent the last year they owned it. His comment was "they really nailed me on the income tax return because of that"... I asked if he meant on the rental income and he said yes. This all followed by the ever common "I'll never do that again" that I hear from people who take a failure as a sign to quit completely.

I know there are many different reasons this could have happened, if it did, and not many details were provided. However, with so few details, what could have been a reason for his poor experience with owning a rental property? He did say he ran it by two different CPAs to make sure it was correct.

What are the ways you can make sure you pay too much in taxes on rental income? (So these mistakes aren't repeated)