All Forum Posts by: Alfredo Cardenas

Thanks Michael. Very Helpful!! I saw exactly what you are talking about in a youtube video but wanted to get a second opinion. I think I know who the new CPA i will be..LOL. There is no telling how much money I have lost over the years for not having the right CPA that can think and strategize. 

What do you think about my other strategy of doing seg study and bonus depreciation on all my rentals for the year 2023 (have not filed it yet) to do the following:

1- To get a bigger loss carried forward to 2024 to offset the sale of 3 properties instead of 2 in 2024. 

2- Or, Since I married a realtor this year 2024 (and we passed the IRS active participation test together), I can activate that loophole, use whatever loss (bigger lost if we can use the seg study) is left over from the sale of the property to offset my high  W-2 wages (way over the $150K threshold) in 2024. 

Oh, is that why he is saying that he can only use the losses being carried over of the one property for sale and not all portfolio losses combined to offset the capital gain because that property will no longer be in service (providing income) "sale of the asset"

Yes. I am aware of that. here is an example of my question to better explain it:

John has paper losses in the following 3 properties carrying over from 2023:

Property A: -$100K

Property B: -$120K

Property C: -$80K

Total portfolio Loss (combined) from 2023: -$300K
In 2024, John sells Property A for $500K (with no debt). John's CPA is telling him that he can only offset the capital gain of the sale of property A of $500K by $100K and not by $300K (entire rental portfolio combined). What do you think? My CPA got upset when I told him that he was wrong.

Also, lets say that John does a Cost Seg (bonus depreciation) on all homes in 2023 to increase the loss on all properties combined from $300K to $600K(for example). Then, use that $600K to offset the $500k sale of property A in 2024, and then have $100K in losses carrying forward to 2025.  My CPA also say no to this scenario. What do you think? 

Ok. So, I am in need of a tax pro specializing in real estate and business. Where do I go in here to find one? anyone that you can recommend in the Florida market.

Thanks.  

I am not sure why he is so sure about me not able to use all my past losses combined to offset the sale of 1 or 2 properties. He comes from a large CPA firm and they have lots of rental investors. I am starting to believe that I need to learn the tax laws myself since I have lost so much money paying unnecessary taxes because my previous CPA's are not familiar with all laws or they just plug numbers into a software (without strategizing) and then I get hit with huge tax bills that could have been legally avoided. I am a high wage earner (w-2).  Does that have to do with it? what other story or scenario can make it where I cant use all combined losses? 

Here is another question that he also said that is not possible. I just got married to a realtor (i can claim real state professional status in 2024 via my wife). I asked him if we can use that large combined losses being carried over to this year to offset my 2024 W-2 given that we can activate the real state profesional status this year to offset W-2 income without limitations. He also said no. He said that we can not use past rental losses to offset 2024 W-2 wages using the real state professional status (we pass all the IRS real state professional test) since we got married this year and not last year. 

My CPA is telling me that I cannot use the sum of all my rental properties losses grouped together as one large loss to offset capital gains of the sale of 2 of those properties. He is saying that I can on only use the losses of each property again the capital gain of each property. Is he correct? Please advise

Thank you for your response but I am still confused. What is the short answer for someone that is not a real state professional and who is not married to one? Are individual (for each rental property) passive losses not allowed to be sum up together to offset capital gain of the sale of one of the properties?  

Hello,

I am new to investing and I lack knowledge of how to use my passive losses from rental properties. or more than lack of knowledge, I just don't think my CPA knows this topic well.  Lets say that i have a total of $100K in total losses that have been carrying from prior years from all of my rental properties combined. Lets say I sell one of the rental properties for $100K. My CPA is telling me that I can only use the losses that have been carrying forward from that specific property and not all of my rental properties combined. Lets just say that $50K has been carrying in losses from this particular property, this means (according to my CPA) that I can only offset $50K from the capital gain of the sale of this one property. Is he correct? He is basically saying that each loss for each rental home can only be applied to the same home and not use the looses of the entire portfolio. 

Please advise.

Thank you