\n<\/p>\n
The biggest <\/strong>real estate tax deduction<\/strong><\/a> is coming back<\/strong>. That\u2019s right\u2014100% <\/strong>bonus depreciation<\/strong><\/a> is almost cleared for a triumphant return as the House pushed a new tax bill to the Senate, one that includes some massive tax deduction potential <\/strong>for real estate investors and everyday Americans alike. So, why is this SUCH a big deal? We\u2019ve got Brandon Hall<\/strong>, CPA, on to break down why bonus depreciation could save you tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars.<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyone knows that real estate boasts some of the best tax benefits of any investment in the nation. But, the one tax benefit to rule them all is almost always depreciation. This tax write-off lets you expense a portion of your property every year<\/strong> and can turn your real-life gain into a paper loss<\/strong>, so you keep your cash flow while avoiding taxes<\/strong><\/a>. But bonus depreciation is like regular depreciation<\/a> on steroids. And the tax benefits can be massive.<\/p>\n So, how do you take advantage of this huge tax write-off<\/strong>? What do you need to know BEFORE you take it? And should you hold off on filing before this new bill passes?<\/strong> We\u2019ve got answers to all that and much more in this episode, so stick around!<\/p>\n Dave: Henry: Dave: Henry: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Henry: Dave: Henry: Brandon: Henry: Dave: Henry: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Henry: Brandon: Dave: Henry: Brandon: Henry: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Henry: Brandon: Henry: Brandon: Dave: Brandon: Dave: Henry: Dave: Henry: Dave: Henry: Dave: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Hey. What\u2019s up, everyone? Welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast Network. My name\u2019s Dave Meyer. I\u2019ll be your host today for this crossover event. This show will be airing both on the BiggerPockets real estate feed as well as On The Market feed because we have a breaking news that\u2019s super exciting and interesting for real estate investors. And to help me discuss this, my good friend Henry Washington is here with me today. Henry, how\u2019s it going, man?<\/p>\n
Hey, man. So good to be here. This is the ultimate asking for a friend episode.<\/p>\n
I know where Henry\u2019s going with this because we obviously know what the show is about, and it\u2019s about taxes. And sometimes I admit I don\u2019t always know what\u2019s going on with taxes, even as it relates to real estate investing. Henry, if you were to rate yourself 1 to 10, how well you understand taxes as it pertains to real estate, what would you rate yourself?<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019m a solid 2.<\/p>\n
Okay. I was doing this exercise myself and I was like, \u201cI think I\u2019m a 3,\u201d and my goal for this year is to become a 5. And I think if you could get to be a 5, you\u2019re probably in pretty good shape, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re hopefully going to be doing with this episode. I think by the end, you and I, that\u2019s our goal here today, and everyone listening, to get ourselves to a 5 out of 10 with real estate taxes. Because as you probably know, if you\u2019re listening to this show, real estate, obviously, offers cashflow, appreciation, loan, paid out, all these great things, but tax benefits are one of the most important pieces of the return puzzle for real estate investors. And there\u2019s been some really interesting news about the tax law as it pertains to real estate over the last couple of weeks.
So today, we are bringing on Brandon Hall. He is a CPA, certified professional accountant, and he focuses entirely on working with real estate investors and he\u2019s going to be joining us today to break down the proposed new law. So without any further ado, all of you listening, me and Henry, we\u2019re going to collectively improve our tax knowledge today with Brandon Hall. Brandon Hall, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for being here.<\/p>\n
Thanks, Dave. Appreciate you having me on.<\/p>\n
You are always so reliable whenever some news comes out about taxes and I just don\u2019t understand them, you are always there to help us make sense of what\u2019s going on and what it means for us real estate investors. So let\u2019s just dig into the biggest headline of recent tax news, which is about bonus depreciation. Now, before we jump into the news element of it, can you just explain to everyone what depreciation is and what bonus depreciation is, and maybe just for a little bonus, why real estate investors care so much about it?<\/p>\n
Yeah, sure. So depreciation is a, and actually I\u2019m going to back up before I explain this. I appreciate that compliment. Thank you very much, that I\u2019m very reliable, but I have to give credit to my team because these guys are like\u2026 I\u2019ve been able to build my firm to a point where I\u2019ve got really smart people working at my firm now and these guys are all over this bill. So thank you, but credit goes out to them. All right.
Depreciation. Depreciation\u2019s a non-cash expense. So when I buy a property, I have to allocate some of the purchase price to land and some in the remainder to the building value. I can\u2019t depreciate land because land does not deteriorate over time. Does not fall apart, but my building literally falls apart. And when investors are first learning about depreciation, they get confused because they\u2019re like, \u201cWell, real estate should appreciate?\u201d The value of the property does appreciate, but it is also true that the roof is falling apart, the windows are falling apart, everything inside that property is falling apart over time, just wear and tear.
So depreciation is an expense that you get to claim on your tax returns every single year in effort to track that wear and tear. It\u2019s an expense that I don\u2019t have to pay for every single year. The calculation is purchase price allocated to building whatever that number is divided by 27 and a half years. That\u2019s my annual expense that I get to claim on my tax returns. Whether I paid cash for the property, financed it 100% or somewhere in between. So depreciation is just this nice shelter. It\u2019s a cashflow shelter because I could have positive cashflow, but then after my depreciation expense comes into play, which again, I didn\u2019t pay for because I paid for it all upfront, I could tell the IRS that I lost money. My depreciation expense could cover my net operating income from the property. So it\u2019s nice from that perspective because I get essentially tax deferred cashflow from my rental real estate investing.
Bonus depreciation is like depreciation on steroids. So bonus depreciation enables me to write off a lot more in the year that I acquire a property and place it into service. And when we\u2019re talking about residential real estate, like a single family home, what you would do is something called a cost segregation study, which is the practice of going into a single family home or a multifamily home or any piece of real estate and saying, \u201cOkay. The building has all of these things that make up the building. It\u2019s not just if I buy a property for 500K and the building values 400K and land is 100 K, if I don\u2019t do a cost segregation study, it\u2019s 400K divided by 27 and a half years.\u201d
But a cost segregation study is going to say, \u201cBut there\u2019s things in that 400K that are not going to last 27 and a half years. So let\u2019s identify those components. Let\u2019s assign a better, more accurate, useful life to those components. And if the useful life is less than 20 years after we do that assignment, then I can immediately expense them with bonus depreciation.\u201d So when you\u2019re buying single family homes, when you\u2019re buying multifamily homes, you can run cost segregation studies and you can write off a large portion anywhere between like 15 to 30% of the purchase price in the first year of ownership.
So bonus depreciation enables you to claw back a lot of that purchase price in the first year as a tax deduction. And bonus depreciation has been phasing out 2023, it was 80%, 2024, it\u2019s 60%, but 2022 and prior thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it was 100% right. So as it phases out, this whole, I can write off 15 to 30% of my purchase price starts to actually get smaller and smaller. It goes to 12 to 28% and then 10 to 25%, and then so on and so on until it\u2019s a much smaller percentage. So that\u2019s why everybody\u2019s talking about bonus depreciation right now because we\u2019ve got a bill that just passed the house that\u2019s going to retroactively make bonus depreciation 100% in 2023.<\/p>\n
Got it. Thank you so much for that explanation. Really appreciate that. Before we talk about the news and whether this is going to pass, I just want to dig into this bonus depreciation because it\u2019s super important for people. When you say 15 to 30% and there are certain things that can be written off in the first years, what are those things?<\/p>\n
Yeah. So if I go into a $500,000 acquisition, let\u2019s call it a single family home. We\u2019re going to allocate, call it 400K to the building, 100K goes to land, and then in that $400,000, the cost segregation study is going to pull out components that can be written off over 5, 7 and 15 years. So five, seven year components are my personal property components. Think like appliances, furniture and fixtures, carpeting, things that can be easily pulled up and moved to another rental without causing damage. So it\u2019s not going to be structural. I can\u2019t go and rip out my plumbing and put that into the next rental. So that doesn\u2019t get a five-year life, that\u2019s going to get a 27 and a half year life. But the cost segregation study is going to identify all those components that we can easily pull off the walls, pull up from the floors, pull out of the house, and move to the next rental without damaging that. That\u2019s essentially what that personal property is.
The 15 year components are going to be land improvement. So if I have parking pads or parking lots or signage or something like that, on my multi-family properties, that\u2019s where that 15 year life is really going to come into play. So the cost segregation study is looking at those types of things and it\u2019s saying, \u201cOkay. Of the 400K building value that we started with, $100,000 of it is 5 year property in 15 year property. The remaining 300K is still depreciated over 27 and a half years, but now we get $100,000 first year deduction.<\/p>\n
So I do think that was probably the best explanation I\u2019ve ever heard for how bonus depreciation works. Appreciate that. Thank you for that. We\u2019ve got a lot more to cover about bonus depreciation and a proposed law that is making its way through Congress as we speak. We will be right back after this quick break.<\/p>\n
Welcome back to the show. We\u2019re here with Brandon Hall discussing bonus depreciation and what that actually means for real estate investors.<\/p>\n
While we\u2019re just on the topic of still discussing what it is and how it all works, I think what a lot of people tend to want to understand too is what\u2019s the long-term implications of bonus depreciation? If I take all this bonus depreciation on the front side, is there something I need to watch out for after 27 and a half years? What happens if I sell that property before 27 and a half years? What\u2019s the long-term picture with bonus depreciation?<\/p>\n
That is a great question, and I wish more people asked that question and talked about it openly. So when you take depreciation, whether it\u2019s bonus depreciation or just regular straight line depreciation, every time that you\u2019d claim depreciation every single year, what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re actually lowering the adjusted basis in your property. So if I have this $500,000 property and I take depreciation of expense of $5,000, now my adjusted basis is 4.95. So if I sell it for $501,000\u2026 Actually let\u2019s play it backwards because this is what\u2019s happening, I think with a lot of people with short-term rentals. All right. So let me just give you a more realistic example.
You buy a $500,000 property in the Smokies, you run the cost seg. It comes with a bunch of furniture and fixtures and everything. So you\u2019re able to immediately deduct $100,000 thanks to bonus depreciation. So you bought it for 500, you\u2019re immediately deducting 100K, your adjusted basis is now 400,000. You bought this thing peak of the market late 2020, early 2021. Now you\u2019re realizing it\u2019s a lot harder to run a short-term rental than I thought it was because it was super easy back then when everybody had all that cash to spend and everybody was staying home and cooped up. They wanted to go out and do something. But now you have to actually run a short-term rental in order to maximize the profit. So now you\u2019re looking at it and you\u2019re like, \u201cI don\u2019t want to put in the work and this isn\u2019t performing at the level that I want it to, so I\u2019m going to go ahead and sell it.\u201d You put it on market for 520, nobody\u2019s buying it at 520. Your best offer is 470.
All right. So you bought it for 500. Now you\u2019ve taken this offer at 470. In your mind, you\u2019ve lost $30,000. That\u2019s what most people think. I lost $30,000 on this deal, which is true, you did actually lose 30K, but in the tax world because you bought it for 500 and took bonus depreciation of 100, your adjusted basis is 400, and if you sell it for 470, you have a $70,000 taxable gain. So even though you lost money, you have to tell the IRS you had a taxable gain. That is called depreciation recapture, because all of that gain comes from depreciation. It doesn\u2019t come from market appreciation. That\u2019s depreciation, recapture, and from bonus depreciation, if your recapture is from bonus depreciation, then you\u2019re paying taxes at your ordinary rate, not the long-term capital gain rate. So it\u2019s very expensive and sometimes surprises people on the back end.
So whenever you\u2019re taking the depreciation upfront, what we try to advise people is don\u2019t go buy toys with this. This is a loan. Every once in a while, you get somebody that goes and buys one of those Lamborghini UREs or something and it\u2019s just like, dude. You need to invest this. This is either going into equities or you\u2019re going to lend or it\u2019s going to be another property because you got to grow this capital because at some point you\u2019re going to have to give it back to the IRS.<\/p>\n
Brandon, you cannot be a self reputable Instagram real estate short-term rental investor who does not A, own a property in the Smokies and B, use the money to go buy a Lamborghini. This is not being\u2026 I have to do this for my business.<\/p>\n
Well, Henry, if you buy a G-Wagon, it\u2019s a tax deal according to Instagram.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a free G-Wagon according to Instagram.<\/p>\n
Yes. Just for everyone listening, there\u2019s this common belief that if you buy a property, I think it\u2019s over 6,000 pounds, you can deduct it and people feel like it\u2019s all of a sudden a good financial decision to buy an incredibly expensive car. And it\u2019s a little bit more complicated than that, to say the least.<\/p>\n
Yeah. I mean, those rules exist for the people that are\u2026 It\u2019s construction equipment. It\u2019s like trucks, construction trucks. And if you\u2019re a business owner and you\u2019re going to retain this vehicle for a long time, then go for it. But what happens is we get to December 15th and somebody calls up their account and frantically, \u201cWhat do I do? Buy a vehicle. Okay, I\u2019m going to go buy the biggest, most expensive I can G-Wagon.\u201d And you go buy that, and then two years later, your business has shifted. You don\u2019t really need the vehicle anymore, but you can\u2019t offload it because you\u2019re going to have a big taxable gain and you\u2019ve got this depreciation hit, like actual depreciation hit, you\u2019ve lost money. So there\u2019s a lot more that goes into it than simply, I get a big tax refund.<\/p>\n
Actually, one of the things that I\u2019ve encountered many times in my career is that a lot of the benefits to real estate investors in terms of taxes only exist for \u201creal estate professionals.\u201d And when I say real estate professionals, Brandon could probably give us a better definition, but I don\u2019t just mean, I, Dave talk about real estate as a job. There is a very specific IRS definition of what a real estate professional is and what it isn\u2019t, and I am not one. So I\u2019m curious about the bonus depreciation. Does this benefit only people who are real estate professionals or does this also apply to people who work full-time in some other industry?<\/p>\n
Yeah, both. So first, absolutely, if you are a real estate professional or if your spouse is a real estate professional, so you could be working full time in a different industry, a non-real estate industry, but if your spouse is a real estate professional and you\u2019re filing a married filing joint tax return, then we think of it as the entire tax return as a real estate professional return. So yeah, so if that\u2019s the case, then it\u2019s wide open to you. You can acquire property place in service bonus, depreciate it, and you can use the tax losses to offset the W2 spouse\u2019s income. So that\u2019s certainly an option. Now, real estate professional status, you have to spend 750 hours working in a real property trader business and you have to spend more time working in the real property trader business or businesses than you do anywhere else.
So if you\u2019re working a full-time, W2 job, you\u2019re out. We get a lot of questions from physicians all the time. \u201cWell, if I\u2019m 10 days on and 10 days off, does that count?\u201d Well, no, because you\u2019re still working 2000 hours for the year and you have to spend an additional 2001 hours in real estate, more time in real estate than you do at your day job. And even if you could do that, I\u2019m an optimist. When I was starting my firm, I was working 80 to 100 hour weeks for a really long time. So I get it, you could certainly do the work, but you\u2019re never going to convince the IRS or the tax court that you did it. So if you\u2019re working, you can\u2019t qualify as a real estate professional.
But if you are working, there is a workaround. You can invest in short-term rentals. If the average period of customer use is seven days or less, then it\u2019s technically not a rental activity. Real estate professional status only applies to rental activities. So a short-term rental is a workaround to that. I think last time I was on, we recorded a whole episode on that, so I\u2019m not going to go into all the details there. But if you can do one of those two things, if I can be a real estate professional or if I can buy short-term rentals and qualify for that workaround, then the bonus depreciation is super helpful.
However, it doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s not helpful for other people. I bought 10 duplexes with my parents and we formed a partnership. We went and bought these 10 duplexes and we cost sagged it. So I\u2019ve got huge passive losses sitting on my returns that are just sitting there. So it doesn\u2019t really help me because I\u2019m not a real estate professional, neither is my wife, but now I have this padding of suspended losses and I can go sell my three unit that I bought in 2015 that has 200K gain built into it, if I so choose to do that. So there are benefits to doing a cost sex study, even if you can\u2019t necessarily capture all the losses today. If you have passive income from other sources or if you have a passive gain from sale from other sources, you can use losses from STIC studies to offset them.<\/p>\n
Okay. So I think I understand. So thank you for that explanation. And please, if you\u2019re interested in this, look up what a real estate professional is in the eyes of the tax code. It is super helpful to you to know one way or another if you are or you\u2019re not. So what it sounds like though, Brandon, is that you can do a cost seg, get your bonus depreciation on, let\u2019s call it property A, and even if you go to sell property B and you have a taxable gain there, you can use the cost seg from property A, even if you\u2019re not a tax professional because they\u2019re both passive income. Is that right?<\/p>\n
Yes. Correct. Yeah.<\/p>\n
Cool. Thank you for letting me know that.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019re not a professional?<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019re not a real estate professional. So passive income always can be offset by passive losses. And to further that too, it doesn\u2019t even have to be a real estate passive activity. I could invest 100K into a hair salon. This is the example I always use because I really want my local hair salon to call me up and say, \u201cWe need 100K, they\u2019re great.\u201d But anyway, I can invest 100K into this local hair salon and they could use that capital as expansion capital and I could get a share of the profits every single year as a result of my investment. Now, I\u2019m not doing anything. I\u2019m not going to manage it. I\u2019m not going to be part of voting or anything. I\u2019m just capital guy.
So let\u2019s say that they passed me 10,000 bucks in profits, that is passive income, even though it\u2019s not from a real estate source, that\u2019s still passive income. And then I could go and use my real estate, depreciate it bonus, depreciate it to offset the 10K coming from my business or from that business activity because passive losses offset passive income. And this is something that accountants mess up a lot, especially if they don\u2019t have a large real estate book, like book of clients or if they\u2019re new to the game. But it\u2019s absolutely something that can be done if you really want to be a nerd and dig into Section 469.<\/p>\n
Okay. So now that we\u2019ve talked about what depreciation is, we\u2019re going to get into the logistics of this law right after this quick break.<\/p>\n
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the show. Okay. So that was hopefully a ton of great and helpful information for everybody. I\u2019m sitting here learning as we\u2019re listening and taking notes myself. So let\u2019s get back to the proposed law. So what else is in this proposal and what is the likelihood or timeframe that this may actually pass because it\u2019s not in play yet?<\/p>\n
Yeah. So as of this recording, the bill just passed the house and it\u2019s going to go to the Senate next for markup and debate. There are varying thoughts on when this bill will actually pass, but it is supported by the Senate and also supported by the White House. It is a very popular bill, so I think that it will ultimately get through everything. The question is just when? The Senate recesses, I believe on February 12th, and there are now reports this morning, this is February 1st of Senate aids saying that they don\u2019t think that the bill\u2019s going to be up for discussion until after that recess, which then puts us into early March for actually getting this thing passed and signed, which is a huge question of, \u201cWell, what do all the real estate investors that have bonus depreciation do?\u201d Because bonus depreciations potentially getting rolled back in 2023 to be 100% versus 80.
So right now we\u2019re on a big wait and see. A couple of the guys in my firm think that the Senate will actually fast track this, and it might be done before the recess on February 12th, so we\u2019ll just have to see. But what\u2019s in it? The three major things are the Child Tax Credits is indexed for inflation. So that\u2019s good news. So that\u2019s increasing. The other one is the R&D costs. So R&D costs, I believe it was at the end of 2022. So 2023 was the first year that this hit. It used to be that you could immediately expense R&D costs, which makes sense for the most part, but now they\u2019re requiring a five-year amortization.
So what that means is, if I am running a technology company and I\u2019ve got a million dollars of cash and I\u2019m spending a million dollars of cash on labor, and so I have zero cash at the end of the day, my $1 million now has to be amortized over five years. So I can only write off 250K of that today. So even though I have zero cash in the bank, I\u2019ve got to tell the IRS, I made 750K this year. Not very good and not ideal, especially now that it\u2019s been a lot harder to raise capital from venture funds. So there\u2019s a lot of panic in the tech space, but what\u2019s in the bill here is basically unwinding or rolling all that back, pushing the start date out of that. So in 2023, you\u2019ll be able to immediately expense all of your R&D costs assuming that this bill gets passed.
And then the big one for real estate investors is 100% bonus depreciation. So again, as I mentioned in 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act implemented 100% bonus depreciation. It was 50% bonus depreciation before that, but starting in 2023, that 100% was supposed to drop to 80%. And then this year, 2024, 60%, 2025, 40%, and so on and so forth until it reaches zero. Now this bill is basically delaying that phase out, so it\u2019s going to roll back to 2023, make 2023, 100%, and then basically you get 100% for 2023, 2024, and 2025. So it\u2019s just kicking the can down the road. We\u2019ll deal with it later in 2026.
Those are the main three things. And there\u2019s some other few things in here too. If you just got done filing all of your 1099\u2019s, this bill proposes increasing the cap from 600 to 1,000 bucks. So a little bit less reporting for us. But the interesting thing about this bill is that it\u2019s primarily funded from ERC claims, employee retention credit claims. So what was happening during the pandemic is you could do the PPP loan, you could get the employee retention credit, and over the past two years, promoters of ERC monies basically came out of the woodwork, built massive businesses really fast, and the IRS is estimating, I forget what percentage, but it\u2019s an insanely high percentage. It\u2019s like\u2026 I\u2019m going to probably not say this right, so don\u2019t hold me to it. But it\u2019s something like 90%. It\u2019s insane amount of these claims for refunds are fraudulent, are not good.
So the IRS is basically stepping up enforcement, and this bill is basically going to pay for itself with recovering those ERC refunds from taxpayers who claim them. So it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s a very small portion that is actually funded by, it\u2019s like 300 million or something, but the rest of it is all ERC enforcement, which is pretty interesting. So it\u2019s a really small hit to the budget. So with that coupled with it being so popular, people are basically thinking it\u2019s going to pass.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m sure that they may fast track this, for the people, not because they themselves own real estate. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s for the people.<\/p>\n
Yeah, exactly. There is one other thing too, 163(j), so if you\u2019re a, and I forgot to mention this, but if you are a larger investor, Section 163(j) might be of interest to you. So this bill is helping you out there, and I\u2019m not going to go into that, but that is also being worked on too. So you\u2019re going to have a better result with deducting business interest.<\/p>\n
All right. So it sounds like overall the bill that is getting bipartisan support and looks eventually poised to make its way through the House, the Senate and gets signed into law is overall a net benefit for real estate investors, which is something I\u2019m sure we all want to hear. Is there anything else in this tax bill, Brandon, that just investors or just Americans should know about?<\/p>\n
Not really. I mean, there\u2019s some other things in this tax bill, but nothing that is necessarily going to impact your day-to-day life. Although-<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I wanted to hear.<\/p>\n
\u2026 there was an issue with getting this bill across the finish line. There were some holdouts on both sides of the aisle in high tax states like California and New York. They wanted to put salt repeal in this bill. So again, back in 2017, the SALT limit, state and local tax limit for itemized deductions was set at $10,000. And that crushed people in California and New York, especially in New York City. So with getting this bill to vote, there were holdouts on both sides of the aisle, both Republican and Democrats that basically wanted to see a SALT repeal back into play because they have constituents that are in their minds paying out the nose and taxes and they want to be able to deduct those state and local taxes that you\u2019re paying via itemized deductions. They ended up huddling with the house leaders and then they ended up flipping their votes to yays.
So we were thinking, \u201cOkay. There\u2019s probably some SALT bill that is going to be on the table.\u201d And then it was confirmed later that there is a SALT bill now on the table as well. So a SALT bill has been proposed and it would essentially raise the cap, only for married filing joint taxpayers, interestingly, at least as of today. But it would raise the cap from $10,000 to $20,000. So now on your Schedule A, if you\u2019re itemizing deductions, your property taxes and your state income taxes, you\u2019ve been capped at 10K, but now it might be 20K. So we\u2019re watching that bill too. There\u2019s the possibility that that one will get combined with the house bill that just passed if they\u2019re both in the Senate at the same time. So we\u2019ll just have to wait and see on that.<\/p>\n
And given the timing of this possibly not being signed into law until you said March, we all know taxes are filed in April, what advice would you have for real estate investors who are working with their CPAs now or maybe they\u2019re not. What should they be doing to prepare or be ready for this?<\/p>\n
Yeah. First is give your CPA some grace. Whenever we have these mid-season swings like this, what happens is, there\u2019s a whole bunch of second and third order effects. It is very easy to just say, \u201cYeah. Hold off on filing your tax return,\u201d which is what you should do. If you have bought property and you are using a caustic study or you\u2019re bonus depreciating improvements or you bought a vehicle and you\u2019re going to bonus depreciate it, you should seriously consider holding off on filing your returns because 100% versus 80% could be a big swing. If you file at 80 and then it\u2019s retroactively deployed like this bill passes, then you\u2019re going to have to amend and file at 100. So there\u2019s going to be issues. If you bought property placed into service in 2023 and are using 100% or using bonus depreciation, you should hold off filing the return.
But the problem is, is that if this bill passes, then all the software companies have to update their software. So it\u2019s not just like, \u201cThe bill passes now we can file.\u201d No, it\u2019s the bill passes and now we have to wait for all the software companies to update their software to reflect the passage and then we can file. It shouldn\u2019t necessarily stop you from going ahead and starting the preparation process, but I would just hold off on actually green lighting that filing until we know what\u2019s going to happen with this bill. And if it is going to pass, then I would just wait until\u2026 We are holding off on it with our clients that acquired property and are using bonus depreciation.<\/p>\n
And just as a point of clarification for people, when you\u2019re mentioning companies updating their software, I\u2019m assuming you\u2019re meaning the companies who do the cost segregation studies, essentially it\u2019s a piece of software that runs this cost segregation analysis, and so they would need to update that software to reflect 100% instead of 80?<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s a good question. They need to update their softwares, yes. They\u2019re probably not going to rerun the cost seg studies. We could extrapolate what 100% looks like as long as we have the cost seg study. What I\u2019m talking about is the actual tax prep software. So we all use enterprise level tax prep software. We use CCH, there\u2019s Thomson Reuters, there\u2019s Drake, there\u2019s all these big software companies that enable professionals to file returns on their behalf. Or even if you\u2019re using TurboTax or H&R Block, however you file your returns, unless you\u2019re handwriting? You\u2019re going to have to wait until that software company updates their software to reflect the changes in this bill. So that\u2019s just another set of time.
And it\u2019s even worse for GPS of syndicate and funds because not only do you get to wait until everything\u2019s done, but you also have a bunch of angry investors that want to file their returns. So if you are a GP of a syndicate and fund, you should probably proactively go out and say, \u201cWe are watching this tax bill. It\u2019s going to impact how we file taxes. So just FYI, we might not necessarily get it to you by March 15th.\u201d<\/p>\n
All right. Brandon, thank you for joining us to share your knowledge and coming on to so quickly to help everyone make sense of the changing tax landscape right now, especially in the couple of months leading up to tax season. If you want to learn more about Brandon and his firm, make sure to check out the show notes. We have all the information there. Hopefully, we\u2019ll see you again real soon for some more updates on the tax code.<\/p>\n
Thanks guys.<\/p>\n
All right. Big thanks to Brandon Hall for joining us. Henry, I want to know, did we achieve our goal? Did you get up from your two out of 10 that you said you were on tax knowledge before the show? Are you at a three now?<\/p>\n
I would say I definitely have expanded my knowledge. Well, first of all, Brandon does such a great job of making complex tax topics understandable for everyone. But he did a great job not just explaining what it all is, but talking about some of the implications of what is the long-term impact of bonus depreciation. So I learned a lot there.<\/p>\n
Yeah, same. I think it\u2019s really important to know that taxes, like most things in investing come with trade-offs. There are some short-term benefits. Maybe there\u2019s some long-term downsides and you need to work with a professional and to understand these things to make those decisions for yourself. And hopefully this episode and what Brandon taught us all collectively here today helps us all make better decisions.<\/p>\n
And one last point of clarification, my knowledge is probably up to a three now, and that is okay because I\u2019m good at hiring tens.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s so true. Exactly. All you need to do is be able to understand most of what the people you trust are talking about, and it sounds like you got that a lockdown.<\/p>\n
Absolutely.<\/p>\n
All right. Thank you all so much for joining us for this episode on the BiggerPockets Podcast Network. If you learn something useful in this episode that you\u2019re going to use in your real estate business or talk to your CPA about, make sure to show us some appreciation, show us some love by giving us a review either on Apple, Spotify or give us that sums up on YouTube. Thanks again for listening. We\u2019ll see you next time.
On The Market was created by me, Dave Meyer and Kaylin Bennett. The show is produced by Kaylin Bennett, with editing by Exodus Media. Copywriting is by Calico Content, and we want to extend a big thank you to everyone at BiggerPockets for making this show possible.<\/p>\n