All Forum Posts by: Judd Campbell

Ha! Chasing the distressed landlord overseas!  I am debating selling one but it is Owen county @James Wilcox

I can inquire with my tax team but wanted to hear from the experts here with any advice as well. I ended up getting a state tax refund this year from Kentucky.  

 correct, it is not foreign income.  My wife working to manage the rentals is foreign earned income for her.  My Rental Schedule E would show rental income, expenses such as tax, insurance, repairs, etc and property management.  if my wife is paid 30% of collected rents to manage the property it will reduce my Schedule E profit. This would be a pretax payout to my wife.  because she declares income while being overseas, she can exclude the first 120k from federal taxes.  

I am paid by a US company within a US bank account.  we are physically overseas more than 330 days so we can use the FEIE.  confirmed by Deloitte and Ernst & Young as they have been doing my taxes. 

Been gone a long time from the forums, 

Hoping someone with tax expertise could help me here.  

My wife and I have 16 rental units in Kentucky and although we have an on the ground handyman we mange financial things remotely.  

We are living in Phuket Thailand currently and this year I utilized the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion to not pay taxes on the first 120k of income.  any income over that which is a combination of W2 and rental income is subject to taxes starting at zero.  so this eliminates taxes on the TOP end of income.  (if I made $200k I would be taxes on 80k after taking the standard deduction and child tax credits, etc.  no AMT or anything.  

Also, I have a 10 year visa for Thailand which excludes me from paying any taxes on income or wealth here in Thailand.  so no local taxes. 

The question is, my wife and I are both able to take the FEIE if we are both working.  My W2 income takes all my FEIE, can I have our rental property business expense her management at $100k?  this would have the rentals break even on my income, and her 100k of income would be untaxed under the FEIE.  

is this possible?  She and I jointly own about 10 units while the rest are under my name.  No leverage, not much in the way of repairs as they are all rehabbed with long term tenants.  Low cost basis so the depreciation is not high. 

That is a good one.  I also hate it when I go into a unit to do a simple filter change and I end up breaking the heater and I need to order parts before the heat can be turned back on.  that is the worst.  even after having 4 or 5 different techs come look at the unit it turns out the parts are on backorder due to COVID.  what a bummer, here is a blanket, make sure to let the faucets drip so they don't freeze. 

@Troy Williams tai hao le!

I will look you up on WeChat!

@Bjorn Ahlblad

I will be back in the states quarterly for board meetings so I can always work some closings in if required.

@Paul D Smith

I thought about setting up my own system to manage but I don’t want distractions while I am in China. I think I am best turning it over to a pro or selling.

I have spent 6 weeks in China in 2018. My family has not been to China but my wife is Asian so I think culturally it will be smoother than most transitions:-)

I have been asked to do a 2+ year assignment in China for my day job.  it will be a heck of an opportunity for the family as well as my career.  They want someone entrepreneurial and I am sure I would be great at the role.  The company is still working through the details of the offer but with me being on the other side of the planet it would be hard to self manage my properties!  

I have 55 units currently and I self manage 30 of those.  I have two guys that work for me as 1099 handymen and I personally do the listings and show the units to tenants.  I pay all the bills and do the financial spreadsheets for the business. 

I feel like the market is at a high currently and I could sell it all or just turn the remaining 30 units over to a property manager and live with lower returns. 

thought on this? would I regret selling off?  

@Nicholas Aiola The HELOC is on my Primary home. I am using those funds as a down payment on a 70 unit apartment complex. I could put up to 70k out of the HELOC so I do have more room.