All Forum Posts by: Tatyana Shevnina

@Aaron Sheagley

Congrats! Must be very exciting

Keep good records. Will make filing taxes easier :). Manila envelope, separate credit card/bank account all help to organize your expenses.

Good luck!

Presuming this is 1099 income, I'd first focus on all the ordinary and necessary expenses tied to YouTube income. 

Quick example here -- https://tubularinsights.com/tax-deductions-us-youtubers/

These expenses/deductions will help to reduce regular income tax as well as self-employment tax.

Any deductions not tied to YouTube income will not help to reduce self-employment tax.

This is also a good summary for qualified opportunity funds and zone
https://www.investopedia.com/opportunity-fund-4688682

Yes, you can defer taxes on capital gain by investing in a qualified opportunity fund, which invested in real estate in an opportunity zone. 

@Alex Nelson    To highlight what @Eamonn McElroy explained, I recently deducted a laptop that a bought to use exclusively for my business. It's only used for work and I deducted the cost against my self-employment income. At the same time, I have a rental property and use my home computer to communicate with PM, update Excel spreadsheet, pay rental expenses, etc. The total time per year is probably under 5 hours, so the cost of my computer is not deductibel against the rental income because the use for rental activity is negligible.  For mixed use, 80% business/20% personal, you need a reasonable method of how you came up with that breakdown. 

For the side question, you said --will not qualify as "an investor" -- if you are talking about real estate professional status, I suggest listening to this podcast. This status provides great benefits but is hard to qualify for. 

@Cliff T.  -- why not just rent the parking out?  It seems that selling it will ultimately diminish the value of the condo.  I rent out a condo in SF that has a parking spot. Sure, when I lived in it, I didn't use my car most of the week. Still, I wouldn't sell it given the parking shortage and prevalent car burglaries.  

@Matthew Walsh

I would double check your state requirement as well. California, where I am, wants a filing and LLC tax even if there is no income or business conducted.

Here's a link to the tagging guide

 I just type until the person's name/picture pops up, click on it and tag turns blue. I also had trouble tagging before!

Rental property mortgage is deducted against rental income. There is no limit.

@Christopher Bell

I have one condo rental in a very different market (san francisco). If the numbers work for you and you don't mind paying for and dealing with HOAs, condos can work fine. To your comments, I've had families as tenants and as well as singles. Appreciation will depend on the market. You are probably right about duration. New families grow and look for a house.

Looking at your numbers, make sure to include property tax, HOA, insurance to see how much will be left to build repair/vacancy reserves. Would it still work if mortgage came out a little higher and rent a little lower..?

Look at HOA policies, if you can. Are there are restrictive move in/move out rules, penalties for violations? Are penalties enforced? My HOA has not enforced penalties for years but recently started to. Some HOAs put quotas on the ratio of owner-occupied vs. rentals. I just look at it as cost of doing business.

Depending on tenants, a condo will require less maintenance. This is a big plus for me. 

Good luck in your search!

If you are looking to use rentals to reduce your W-2 income/taxes, a rental will not accomplish this in most cases. More common benefit is to not pay any tax on the rental income you receive and accumulate rental losses for future use. A tax professional can help to make sure that your expectations and tax situation are in alignment. 

Good luck in your search.