March 19, 2024

How To Write Off Travel Expenses

56 minutes

Welcome to episode #214 of the Anderson Business Advisors podcast. Today, experts Toby Mathis, Esq., and Eliot Thomas, Esq., explain tax strategies for common questions concerning how to write off business travel that includes personal days (hint: business days have to be more than 50% of your trip), how and when you can qualify as a real estate professional, investing in real estate from your investment accounts, and some of the helpful tax benefits of creating and using a Health Savings Account.

Submit your tax question to taxtuesday@andersonadvisors.

Highlights/Topics:

"Can I deduct travel expenses to rehab rent rentals that are in other states than my primary residence?" - Yes, but you have to spend more days doing work (more than 50%) than personal days.

"If we convert our traditional IRA to a Roth IRA with the same provider, do we have to file any forms with the tax return or otherwise? If so, what forms?" - You’ll receive a 1099R - the converted amount is taxable.

"Do we have to make the REPS election every year? And how do we make the election?" – That's real estate professional status. Does one spouse qualify? Is he/she spending 750+ hours on the business?

"Last year we neglected to register as real estate professionals. We ended up owing a substantial amount in taxes. Can we register as real estate professionals this year and carry over the expenses that were disallowed for 2022 and 2023?" –in '23, if we make the status and we, the real estate professional status and we aggregated, we got everything done properly in return, it's not gonna help us. for those prior losses.

"For Augusta rule payments, what documentation is required beyond meeting minutes? Do I just write myself a check? Should Augusta rule go in the memo? Do I need to send myself an invoice? I am the owner and employee of an S-corporation?" – You always want to send an invoice. I would recommend it. You want to have that paper trail.

"Can investment income be used to fund a health savings account? The deductibles are so high. We are always paying out of pocket." - So you don't need any type of specific income to fund an HSA health savings account. Limits for 2023 are 7750 for a family, 3850 for an individual.

"I plan to buy a rental property using my 401(k). I'm 65 and set up my solo 401(k) for rollover. My question is, if I convert to a Roth 401(k) and purchase the rental, does the rental income and future equity gain become tax-free?" – Yes, it does, that's a quick answer.

"Should I have my rental income funneled into an LLC, business, or corporation to save money in taxes?" - how is it taxed? And it can be what we call disregarded, which means it's taxed. Could be a partnership, could be an S corp, could be a C corporation, and all those have different answers.

"What are the tax and legal benefits of making an owner loan to my LLC rather than capital contributions?" - just like the last question, how is that LLC taxed? We would do something different, perhaps if it was a disregarded entity or partnership versus an S -corp or a C -corp. They can all have different outcomes depending on how we do it.

"Can you write off 100% of your trip to Las Vegas all expenses? I'm a realtor licensed in both Nevada and California. Any other tax deductions?" - You're going to have to qualify it as business travel. That means more days of business than anything else…

Resources:

Tax and Asset Protection Events

https://andersonadvisors.com/real-estate-asset-protection-workshop-training/?utm_source=aba&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=write-off-travel-expenses

Anderson Advisors

https://andersonadvisors.com/

Toby Mathis YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@TobyMathis

Toby Mathis TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@tobymathisesq

Clint Coons YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@ClintCoons

...more

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