Category: REAL ESTATE

General Information, REAL ESTATE, RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS

Illinois Just Banned These Landlord Fees — What You Need to Do Before July 1, 2026

Howard Tax Prep LLC

Published: April 10, 2026  |  By Howard Tax Prep LLC  |  Category: Landlord Tax Tips

At our Chicago tax preparation office for landlords, real estate investors, and small business owners, we assist landlords with tax planning to reduce their tax burden. Because we specialize in landlord and real estate investor tax preparation, we must stay abreast of laws affecting landlords. The following are things you need to know about bill HB3564 with amendments 3,7, & 8.

If you own residential rental property in Illinois, a new law just passed that directly affects what you can charge your tenants — and the clock is already ticking.

The law takes effect July 1, 2026. That gives you less than three months to get your leases, your application process, and your fee structures in order.

Here’s exactly what’s banned, what it means for your rental business, and what you need to do right now.

The Fees That Are Now Banned

This is the section most landlords need to read carefully. The following fees are prohibited outright — meaning you cannot charge them under any circumstances once the law takes effect.

Application and Screening Fees

You can no longer charge any fee for processing, reviewing, or accepting a rental application. The only fee related to tenant screening that survives is a background check fee — and that one comes with strict conditions:

  • Fee cap: Cannot exceed $50. If the actual cost from the third-party screening provider exceeds $50, you may charge more — but you must pay the cost upfront, bill the tenant within 14 days, and provide a receipt. Miss that 14-day window and the tenant owes nothing.
  • Waiver required: If an applicant provides a background check from within the past 30 days, you must waive the fee entirely.
  • No eviction for non-payment: Failure to pay the background check fee cannot be used as grounds for eviction.

Maintenance and Service Fees

Every one of the following maintenance-related fees is banned:

  • After-hours maintenance fees: No fee for after-hours service requests
  • Contact fees: No fee for calling or contacting the building owner or property manager — for any reason related to the tenancy
  • Travel fees: No fee for travel to complete repairs or work on the unit
  • Hotline fees: No fee for providing a tenant hotline
  • Routine maintenance fees: No fee for routine upkeep or repairs
  • Pest removal fees: No fee for pest removal or abatement
  • Inspection fees: No fee for an in-person inspection at move-in or move-out

Administrative and Lease Fees

  • Lease modification or renewal fees: No fee for modifying or renewing a lease
  • Eviction notice fees: No fee for serving an eviction notice or filing an eviction action before a court order is granted. Note: courts can still award fees at the conclusion of a case.
  • Ancillary screening fees: No fee that duplicates screening costs or is unrelated to actual screening
The Renaming Loophole Is Closed
The law specifically prohibits landlords from renaming a banned fee to avoid these restrictions. You cannot call a maintenance fee a “resident services fee” or a move-in inspection fee an “administrative fee.” If the substance of the fee is banned, the label doesn’t matter.

Move-In and Move-Out Fees: Not Banned, But Completely Restructured

This one surprises a lot of landlords. Move-in and move-out fees are not outright banned — but the way you can charge them has fundamentally changed.

If you want to charge a move-in or move-out fee, here’s what the law now requires:

  • Itemized list required: You must provide the tenant with a written itemized list of all services included in the fee, broken down individually — including any bundled services.
  • Tenant opt-out right: The tenant can opt out of any individual item on the bundled list. They don’t have to take the whole package.
  • Fee capped at actual cost: The total fee cannot exceed the actual estimated cost of the services on that itemized list.

What this means in plain terms: a flat move-in fee charged as a revenue item is gone. If you charge one, it must reflect real documented costs — and your tenant gets to pick what they want from the menu.

Late Fee Rules Have Changed Too

Late fees were also addressed in the final bill. Here’s what the new rules look like:

  • 5-day grace period: You cannot charge a late fee until rent is at least 5 days past due — the earliest you can charge is day 6.
  • Cap on first $1,000 in rent: Late fees cannot exceed $10 on the first $1,000 in monthly rent.
  • Cap above $1,000: Late fees cannot exceed 5% of any rent amount over $1,000.
  • Cannot be used in eviction calculations: Late fees may not be included in the rent amount for purposes of eviction proceedings.

New Transparency Requirements: Your Leases and Listings Must Change

Beyond the fee bans, the law adds disclosure requirements that affect every new lease you sign after July 1, 2026.

  • First-page disclosure: Every non-optional fee — whether one-time or recurring — must be explicitly listed on the first page of the lease. If a fee is not on page one, the tenant is not legally obligated to pay it.
  • Utility disclosure in listings: When advertising a unit for rent, you must clearly state whether utilities are included in the rent.
  • Lease waiver clauses are void: Any clause in a lease that tries to waive these tenant protections is void and unenforceable as a matter of public policy.

If your current lease template was drafted before this law, it almost certainly needs to be updated.

What Happens If You Violate the Law?

Tenants can file a civil lawsuit for violations. Courts can award:

  • Monetary damages
  • Injunctive relief
  • Attorney’s fees and court costs

That last one matters. When attorney’s fees are on the table, it becomes much easier for tenants to find an attorney willing to take a case — including on contingency. This is not a law you want to test.

Who Is Exempt?

Not every landlord is covered. The law does not apply to:

  • Owner-occupied buildings with 6 or fewer units: If you live in the building and it has 6 or fewer units total, you are exempt.
  • Nursing homes and similar institutions: Entrance fees for these facilities are exempt.
  • Existing leases: The law only applies to new or renewed leases entered into after July 1, 2026. Your existing leases are not retroactively affected.

Your Action Checklist: What to Do Before July 1, 2026

Here’s what you should be working on right now:

Update Your Lease Templates

  1. Remove all banned fees — Go through your lease line by line and eliminate any fee that appears on the banned list above: after-hours fees, maintenance fees, contact fees, travel fees, pest removal fees, inspection fees, and lease renewal fees.
  2. Restructure your move-in fee — If you charge one, convert it to an itemized list of actual services and costs. The flat move-in fee as a revenue item is no longer compliant.
  3. Add a first-page fee disclosure section — Create a dedicated section on page one of your lease listing every non-optional fee. If it is not listed there, you cannot collect it.
  4. Update your late fee language — Make sure your lease reflects the new caps and the 5-day grace period requirement.
  5. Remove lease waiver clauses — Delete any language asking tenants to waive their rights under this law. It is void anyway and could create liability.

Update Your Application Process

  1. Eliminate application processing fees — Any fee for reviewing or accepting an application — separate from a background check — must go.
  2. Revamp your background check process — Cap at $50 (or actual cost if higher — but you pay upfront and must bill within 14 days with receipt). Build a process to accept applicant-provided background checks from the past 30 days and waive the fee accordingly.

Update Your Listings

  1. Add utility disclosure to all listings — Every rental listing, online or print, must state whether utilities are included in the rent.

Get Professional Help

  1. Have your updated lease reviewed by an Illinois real estate attorney — Before July 1, 2026, have a licensed attorney review your revised lease template to confirm compliance. This article is informational — not legal advice.

A Note on the Tax Side — This Is Where We Come In

If you have been collecting move-in fees, application fees, or maintenance-related fees as rental income, your revenue picture changes starting July 1, 2026. For cash basis landlords — which describes most of our clients — fees collected are income in the year received. Losing those fee streams means lower gross rental income going forward.

At the same time, costs you previously recovered through fees — pest control, maintenance, after-hours repairs — are now unrecovered expenses. They are still deductible on Schedule E, but now there is no offsetting income. Depending on your passive activity situation, that shift could actually improve your tax position.

If you are planning to raise rents to offset lost fee income, that decision has tax implications worth considering — particularly if you have Section 8/HCV tenants (rent increases require Housing Authority approval and must meet “reasonable rent” standards per HUD guidelines). You also need to consider whether higher rents affect tenant income-qualifying ratios or whether you are near the passive activity loss thresholds under IRC Section 469.

This is exactly the kind of mid-year planning conversation we have with our landlord clients. Reach out if you want to talk through how HB 3564 affects your specific portfolio and tax situation.

⚠ Status Update
As of April 9, 2026, HB 3564 has passed both the Illinois House and Senate and is awaiting Governor Pritzker’s signature. It is expected to be signed. The effective date is July 1, 2026.

Questions? Let’s Talk.

Howard Tax Prep LLC works with Illinois landlords on tax planning, rental income strategy, Schedule E preparation, and the tax implications of legislative changes like this one.

We are not attorneys and this article is not legal advice — for lease compliance questions, please consult a licensed Illinois real estate attorney. But for the tax side of your rental business, we are here.

📧 info@howardtaxprep.com  | 
📞 (855) 743-5765  | 
1800 Ridge Road, Suite 204-2, Homewood, IL 60430

This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice specific to your situation. Consult a licensed Illinois real estate attorney for lease compliance questions and a qualified tax professional for advice on your rental tax strategy.

Family Tax Issues, General Information, REAL ESTATE, Self Employed, tax deductions, Tax Reduction, TAXES

Energy Tax Credits for Homeowners

Howard Tax Prep LLC
Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels.com

Here in our Chicago South Loop Tax Preparation office, and our Homewood Il Tax Preparation office, we work with homeowners and real estate investors that are looking to save on their taxes. As we always say, when it comes to taxes, the best tax benefit is a tax credit, because you receive the amount on a dollar-for-dollar basis, versus tax deductions which only slightly reduce your taxable income. To say it another way, a $2,000 tax credit saves you $2,000 in taxes.

Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit

Per the IRS, “if you make qualified energy-efficient improvements to your home after Jan. 1, 2023, you may qualify for a tax credit up to $3,200.” The Efficient Home Improvement Credits help homeowners pay for various types of energy efficiency improvements. The credit is 30% of energy property cost up to $1,200, and $2,000 per year for qualified heat pumps, biomass stoves, or biomass boilers. Since more people will qualify for the energy-efficient improvements, we’ve outlined the details below.

  • Exterior doors (energy star approved). Max 2 doors, $250 each, total credit amount $500. Example, door cost $1,300; 30% of $1,300 is $390. Although 30% of the cost is $390, the taxpayer can only get $250 of the $390 (per door up to $500).
  • Exterior windows & skylights that meet Energy Star Most Efficient certification requirements; max credit amount $600.
  • Electric panel upgrades. 30% of the cost up to $600.
  • Home insulation. 30% of the cost up to $1,200.
  • Central air conditioner. 30% of the cost up to $600.
  • Furnace, heat pumps, water heaters, and hot water boilers. 30% of the cost.
  • Home energy audits. 30% of the cost up to $150.
  • Heat pumps, biomass stoves, or biomass boilers. $2,000 per year.

What if I earn a high income?

The great thing about this credit is that even those that earn higher incomes can take advantage of the credit (because there are no maximum income thresholds).

How many times can I claim this credit?

Although the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit has a $1,200 annual cap (with limits on specific items), you can claim the credit each year through 2033. Some homeowners are choosing to perform energy efficiency projects over several years, so that they can claim the credit each year.

Will this credit increase my tax refund?

It depends! The credit is nonrefundable, meaning if you don’t owe any tax, you will not receive the credit as a refund check. However, the credit can reduce what you owe, helping you to receive a refund of the income taxes withheld by your employer.

Can I carry this tax over to another year?

No, you can’t carry the credit over to a future tax year.

Who can claim the credit

Homeowners that use the property as their main residence, or as a vacation home. Landlords can NOT take this credit.

Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have questions, or need business tax preparation, business entity creation, or business compliance assistance please contact us online, or call our office at 855-743-5765. Do you owe the IRS, or your state back taxes? Do you have unfiled tax returns? Is the IRS threatening to garnish your paycheck, or levy your bank account? Are you ready to get back on track with the IRS? Howard Tax Prep LLC will help you get back on track with the IRS, get into a settlement, or setup a payment with the IRS. Reach out to us now! Make sure tojoin our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

Author information: Trudy M. Howard is a managing member of Howard Tax Prep LLC, a south loop of Chicago tax preparation and accounting office.

General Information, REAL ESTATE, RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS, Self Employed, tax deductions, TAXES

How to write off startup cost/ expenses on a rental property.

Howard Tax Prep LLC

In our South Loop of Chicago Tax Preparation office, and our Homewood, Il tax preparation office, we often encounter taxpayers who want to generate additional revenue without having to take on a second job or a time-consuming activity. In most cases, taxpayers express an interest in becoming a commercial or residential landlord; however, prior to becoming a rent-collecting landlord, you’ll likely have to spend a lot of money researching and preparing the property for rental. The good news is that the tax code treats some of those monies as start-up expenses.

What Are Start-Up Expenses?
“Start-up expenses” are certain costs (money spent) you incur before a new business begins. In the case of a rental property business, these are costs incurred before you offer the property for rent.

Unlike operating expenses (the cost you spend on monthly bills such as internet, rent, office software etc.) for an existing business, start-up expenses can’t automatically be deducted in a single year because the money you spend to start a new rental (or any other) business is a capital expense—a cost that will benefit you for more than one year.

Normally, you can’t deduct start-up expenses until you sell or otherwise dispose of the business. But a special tax rule allows you to deduct up to $5,000 in start-up expenses the first year you are in business, with the remaining cost being deducted over the next 15 years.

There are two broad categories for startup cost:

  1. Investigatory–Cost incurred as part of a general search to determine whether to acquire or enter a new business and which new business to enter. For example, you may deduct fees paid to a market research firm to analyze the demographics, traffic patterns, and general economic conditions of a neighborhood.
  2. Pre-opening costs, such as advertising, office expenses, salaries, insurance, and maintenance costs.

Your cost of purchasing a rental property is not a start-up expense. Rental property and other long-term assets, such as furniture, must be depreciated (cost spread out over time) once the rental business begins.

On the day you start your rental business, you can elect to deduct your start-up expenses.

The deduction is equal to

  • the lesser of your start-up expenditures or $5,000, reduced (but not below zero) by the amount by which such start-up expenditures exceed $50,000, plus
  • amortization of the remaining start-up expenses over the 180-month period beginning with the month in which the rental property business begins.

When you file your tax return, you automatically elect to deduct your start-up expenses when you label and deduct them on your Schedule E (or other appropriate return).

Additionally, travel expenses to get your rental business going are deductible start-up expenses with one important exception: travel costs to buy the targeted rental property are not start-up expenses. Instead, they are capital expenses that must be added to the cost of the property and depreciated.

Costs you pay to form a partnership, limited liability company, or corporation are not part of your start-up expenses. But under a different tax rule, you can deduct up to $5,000 of these costs the first year you’re in business and amortize any remaining costs over the first 180 months you are in business.

Note that the cost of expanding an existing business is a business operating expense, not a start-up expense. As long as business expansion costs are ordinary, necessary, and within the compass of your existing rental business, they are deductible.

The IRS and tax court take the position that your rental business exists only in your property’s geographic area. So, a landlord who buys (or seeks to buy) property in a different area is starting a new rental business, which means the expenses for expanding in the new location are start-up expenses.

You can’t deduct start-up expenses if you’re a mere investor in a rental business. You must be an active rental business owner to deduct them.

Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have questions, or need business tax preparation, business entity creation, or business compliance assistance please contact us online, or call our office at 855-743-5765. Do you owe the IRS, or your state back taxes? Do you have unfiled tax returns? Is the IRS threatening to garnish your paycheck, or levy your bank account? Are you ready to get back on track with the IRS? Howard Tax Prep LLC will help you get back on track with the IRS, get into a settlement, or setup a payment with the IRS. Reach out to us now! Make sure tojoin our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

Author information: Trudy M. Howard is a managing member of Howard Tax Prep LLC, a south loop of Chicago tax preparation and accounting office.

REAL ESTATE, TAXES

Make The Closing Statement Work for You When Buying Rental Property.

Howard Tax Prep LLC

In our South Loop of Chicago Tax Preparation office, and our Homewood, Il tax preparation office, we often come across taxpayers that want to reduce their tax bill and save money (legally). Because we specialize in small business owner and real estate investor tax preparation & tax planning, we often come into contact with new landlords.

Most of your purchase costs when acquiring a rental property will be detailed in the real estate closing statement or the closing disclosure. The closing statement is a financial instrument, not a tax document.

You need to go through each line item in the statement and assign it to one of the three following tax categories:

  • Basis
  • Loan Acquisition
  • Operations

Then, once you have divided your expenditures into these three categories, you often need to consider the best tax strategies for each. For example, in the basis category, you assign costs to land, land improvements, buildings, and personal property. Each dollar assignment has an impact on your profits.

This article provides a useful guide of information to help you build your rental property profits on the day you close escrow.

1. Basis

Generally, your basis (a fancy way of saying the money you put into something) is the total cost you pay for the property, including your costs of obtaining and perfecting the title. Once you have this total cost, you allocate that cost to land, land improvements, buildings, and equipment, and then you depreciate all but the land.

1.1 What Goes into Basis

Examine the closing statement to identify expenditures that you should include in your basis. The following list gives you some of the items you usually would include:

  • Contract price
  • Personal property
  • Abstract (title search) fees
  • Escrow fees
  • Legal fees (for the title search, sales contract, and deed but not for the loan)
  • Real estate commissions (generally paid by the seller; include in your basis if paid by you, the
  • buyer)
  • Recording fees
  • Surveys
  • Transfer or stamp taxes
  • Title Examination
  • Amounts you paid on behalf of the seller, such as back taxes, back interest, recording fees,
  • mortgage fees, charges for improvements and repairs, and sales commissions
  • In addition to what appears on the closing statement, make a review of your credit card statements and checkbook
  • to identify other costs that apply to the purchase of this property.

1.2 Allocating Basis to Assets

You allocate basis to land, land improvements, buildings, and equipment based on fair market values at the time of purchase.

2. Loan Acquisition

When you buy rental property, tax law divides your loan costs into two categories:

  • Costs you incur to obtain the loan
  • Costs, like points, that decrease the mortgage interest rate

2.1 Costs to Obtain the Loan

You write off the costs of obtaining the mortgage over the life of the mortgage using the straight-line amortization method. Costs you include in this write-off include:

  • Mortgage commissions
  • Abstract fees
  • Mortgage recording fees
  • Mortgage stamp and other taxes
  • Credit report
  • Lender’s inspection report
  • Appraisal fee for the loan
  • Mortgage insurance application fee
  • Mortgage assumption fee

Example. You incur $8,000 in costs to obtain a 10-year mortgage loan. You deduct $800 a year.

Loan origination fees, brokers’ fees, maximum loan charges, and premium charges are not points. These are costs of obtaining the loan and, like the costs above, you amortize them on a straight-line basis over the life of the loan.

2.2 Loan Costs That You Treat Like Interest

Points. The term “points” is often confusing. In a financial sense, the point represents a prepayment that you make to obtain a discount on the loan interest rate. In general, the more points you pay, the lower the interest rate.

Essentially, the payment of points is the payment of interest in advance, and the tax law gives special treatment to your payment of points.

Since points are nothing more than prepayment of interest on your loan, tax law treats points as original issue discount (OID). The amount of your OID determines which method you may use to write off points paid on a rental property acquisition.

3. Operating Items

At closing, you might pay real property taxes, fire and property insurance premiums, and city and town taxes. Look at these expenses. See whether they apply to your current and future holding of the property. If so, you may deduct these costs as current-year operating expenses, assuming you place the property in service at closing.

Per IRS publication 551, “If you pay real estate taxes the seller owed on real property you bought, and the seller didn’t reimburse you, treat those taxes as part of your basis. You can’t deduct them as taxes. If you reimburse the seller for taxes the seller paid for you, you can usually deduct that amount as an expense in the year of purchase.” 

You also want to look through your checkbook and credit card statements for other operating expenses and perhaps some start-up expenses.

Takeaways

The closing statement examination in this article is the perfect place to start your property on the track for maximum profits by getting the best tax benefits at inception.

When you are thinking about acquiring a rental property, make it a point to review this article so that you can get the most out of both your closing costs and your cost to buy the property.

Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have questions, or need business tax preparation, business entity creation, or business compliance assistance please contact us online, or call our office at 855-743-5765. Do you owe the IRS, or your state back taxes? Do you have unfiled tax returns? Is the IRS threatening to garnish your paycheck, or levy your bank account? Are you ready to get back on track with the IRS? Howard Tax Prep LLC will help you get back on track with the IRS, get into a settlement, or setup a payment with the IRS. Reach out to us now! Make sure tojoin our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

Author information: Trudy M. Howard is a managing member of Howard Tax Prep LLC, a south loop of Chicago tax preparation and accounting office.

Business Strategies, business taxes, Family Tax Issues, General Information, REAL ESTATE, Retirement Income, Self Employed, Tax Reduction, TAXES

Congress Reinstates Expired Tax Provisions—Some Back to 2018

Howard Tax Prep LLC

congress 3

Congress let many tax provisions expire on December 31, 2017, making them dead for your already- filed 2018 tax returns.

In what has become much too common practice, Congress resurrected the dead provisions retroactively to January 1, 2018. That’s good news. The bad news is that we have to amend your tax returns in our Chicago south loop tax preparation office to make this work for you.

And you can relax when filing your 2019 and 2020 tax returns, because lawmakers extended the “extender” tax laws for both years. Thus, no worries until 2021—and even longer for a few extenders that received special treatment.

Back from the Dead

The big five tax breaks that most likely impact your Form 1040 are as follows:

  1. Exclusion from income for cancellation of acquisition debt on your principal residence (up to $2 million)
  2. Deduction for mortgage insurance premiums as residence interest
  3. 7.5 percent floor to deduct medical expenses (instead of 10 percent)
  4. Above-the-line tuition and fees deduction
  5. Nonbusiness energy property credit for energy-efficient improvements to your residence

Congress extended these five tax breaks retroactively to January 1, 2018. They now expire on December 31, 2020, so you’re good for both 2019 and 2020.
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Other Provisions Revived

Congress also extended the following tax breaks retroactively to January 1, 2018, and they now expire on December 31, 2020 (unless otherwise noted):

  • Black lung disability trust fund tax
  • Indian employment credit
  • Railroad track maintenance credit (December 31, 2022)
  • Mine rescue team training credit
  • Certain racehorses as three-year depreciable property
  • Seven-year recovery period for motorsports entertainment complexes
  • Accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations
  • Expensing rules for certain film, television, and theater productions
  • Empowerment zone tax incentives
  • American Samoa economic development credit
  • Biodiesel and renewable diesel credit (December 31, 2022)
  • Second-generation biofuel producer credit
  • Qualified fuel-cell motor vehicles
  • Alternative fuel-refueling property credit
  • Two-wheeled plug-in electric vehicle credit (December 31, 2021)
  • Credit for electricity produced from specific renewable resources
  • Production credit for Indian coal facilities
  • Energy-efficient homes credit
  • Special depreciation allowance for second-generation biofuel plant property
  • Energy-efficient commercial buildings deduction

Temporary Provisions Extended

Congress originally scheduled these provisions to end in 2019 and now extended them through 2020:

  • New markets tax credit
  • Paid family and medical leave credit
  • Work opportunity credit
  • Beer, wine, and distilled spirits reductions in certain excise taxes
  • Look-through rule for certain controlled foreign corporations
  • Health insurance coverage credit

If you have questions about the extenders, please call us at 855-743-5765. Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have questions, need help with tax debt, business tax preparation, business entity creation, business insurance, or business compliance
assistance please contact us online, or call our office toll free at 1-855-743-5765 or locally in Chicago or Indiana at 1-708-529-6604. Make sure to join our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

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Business Strategies, business taxes, Family Tax Issues, General Information, REAL ESTATE, RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS, Self Employed, signing agent, Tax Reduction, TAXES

Unlock Tax Deductions with a Rental Property Home Office

Howard Tax Prep LLC

 

unlock 2

With the start of a new tax year, you’re probably looking for new tax savings opportunities, like our Chicago South Loop Tax Preparation clients.

As you probably know, establishing a home office for your Schedule C or corporate business creates valuable tax deductions.

But it’s not available only for your proprietorship,partnership, or corporate business. If you have rental properties, you can establish a home office to manage your rental properties and deduct the cost on your Schedule E.
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Rentals as a Business

The first hurdle is that your rental activities have to qualify as a “trade or business” under the tax law.

Luckily for you, that’s relatively simple—you’ll need regular and continuous involvement with your rental activities to meet this requirement.

Whether or not your rental activities are a trade or business depends on the facts and circumstances of your particular situation, and tax court cases give us guidance on that.

Qualifying Area

Your second hurdle is setting aside space in your home that qualifies for the home-office deduction.

For this to work, you need to use that space in your residence regularly and exclusively as the principal place of business for your rental activities.
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This sounds hard, and it was hard—before lawmakers changed the rules to include, as a principal place of business, the space you use for administrative or management activities, provided there is no other fixed location where you conduct substantial administrative or management activities.

Home-Office Deduction

Establishing a rental property home office does two things to your household expenses:

  1. Turns non-deductible household expenses into tax deductions.
  2. Moves household expenses normally deductible on Schedule A to your rental properties on Schedule E.

The latter is especially important after passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

  • put a $10,000 limit on your Schedule A state and local tax deductions, and
  • lowered the amount of your mortgage on which you deduct mortgage interest from $1 million to $750,000.

Eliminate Commuting

Without a qualifying home office, your mileage from home to your first business stop and then from your last business stop back home is non-deductible commuting mileage.

But here is what happens with the rental property’s principal office in your home:

  1. You have no commuting mileage from your home to and from your rentals, if the rentals are in the area of your tax home (say, within 50 miles).
  2. You establish your rental property tax home, and if your rentals are outside the area of your tax home, then the mileage from your home to and from the rentals is deductible business mileage because you are traveling outside the area of your tax home.

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Real Estate Professional

If you qualify as a real estate professional under the tax law, then you can deduct 100 percent of your rental losses in the year you incur them.

But there’s a big hurdle to the tax law classification as a real estate professional. You must show that you spend

  • more than 50 percent of your personal service work time in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participate, and
  • more than 750 hours of service during the tax year in real property trades or business in which you materially participate.

Having a rental property home office that qualifies as a tax-code-defined principal place of business makes it easier to qualify as a real estate professional, because your time spent on deductible travel to and from your rental properties counts toward the time requirements.

Claiming Your Deduction

The Schedule E instructions not only fail to provide any explanation about where to put your home-office deduction, but they also do not even mention a home office.

But the instructions do say that you can deduct ordinary and necessary business expenses, and the home office meets that rule. Also, as established in Curphey (a precedent-setting case), the home office is allowable as an expense against income from a rental business.

If you would like to discuss your rental properties with me, please call us directly at 855-743-5765. Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have questions, need help with tax debt, business tax preparation, business entity creation, business insurance, or business compliance
assistance please contact us online, or call our office toll free at 1-855-743-5765 or locally in Chicago or Indiana at 1-708-529-6604. Make sure to join our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

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Family Tax Issues, General Information, REAL ESTATE, Self Employed, TAX DEBT RELIEF, Tax Reduction, TAXES

Are you a homeowner marrying a homeowner?

Howard Tax Prep LLC

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In our Chicago South Loop Tax Preparation office, we frequently meet with engaged couples for tax planning purposes. An issue that comes up often is the one of homeowners marrying each other. Engaged couples that each own a home have to decide which home to move into, & which home to rent out, or sell. Keep reading to see how you can sell your home and pay ZERO TAXES on up to $500,000!

1.) Don’t sell until AFTER THE WEDDING. If you sell your personal residence for a profit, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 as a single person, and up to $500,000 if you’re married. In order to get the entire $500,000 both spouses must have used the home as their primary residence for at least 2 years out of the last 5 years. If only 1 spouse used the home as a residence, the maximum exclusion will be $250,000. 
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2.) File your taxes married filing jointly. Check with your tax professional to see if this is the best filing status for your situation. Tax debt, student loans, and child support obligations need to be taken into consideration before choosing this status.

3.) Sell the home that at least 1 of you have lived in for 24 months out of the last 5 years. In order to qualify for the personal residence capital gain exclusion you must meet the ownership and residency test. Per IRS.gov “If you owned the home for at least 24 months (2 years) out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale (date of the closing), you meet the ownership requirement. For a married couple filing jointly, only one spouse has to meet the ownership requirement.

HOWEVER, for the residence test, the IRS says: unlike the ownership requirement, each spouse must meet the residence requirement individually for a married couple filing jointly to get the full exclusion. If you owned the home and used it as your residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years, you meet the residence requirement. The 24 months of residence can fall anywhere within the 5-year period, and it doesn’t have to be a single block of time. All that is required is a total of 24 months (730 days) of residence during the 5-year period.

4.) If you’re going to rent the home, remember to account for any property improvements when figuring your basis for depreciation. For example, if you purchased the home for $100,000 & you’ve added a $10,000 porch, and a $20,000 roof, your basis (amount of money in the property) is now $130,000. There are other rules that need to be considered when figuring tax basis, so consult a tax professional.
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5.) If you rent to family, family includes only your spouse, brothers and sisters, half brothers and half sisters, ancestors (parents, grandparents, etc.), and lineal descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.). MAKE SURE TO CHARGE THEM FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR RENT so that you don’t lose out on valuable tax deductions!

Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have tax debt help questions, need Chicago business tax preparation, business entity creation, business insurance, or business compliance assistance please contact us online, or call our office toll free at 1-855-743-5765 or locally in Chicago or Indiana at 1-708-529-6604. Make sure to join our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

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Business Strategies, business taxes, General Information, REAL ESTATE, RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS, Self Employed, TAX DEBT RELIEF, Tax Reduction, TAXES

TCJA Tax Reform Sticks It to Business Start-Ups That Lose Money

Howard Tax Prep LLC

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The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tax reform added an amazing limit on larger business losses that can attack you where it hurts—right in your cash flow.

And this new law works in some unusual ways that can tax you even when you have no real income for the year. When you know how this ugly new rule works, you have some planning opportunities to dodge the problem.

Over the years, lawmakers have implemented rules that limit your ability to use your business or rental losses against other income sources. The big three are:

  1. The “at risk” limitation, which limits your losses to amounts that you have at risk in the activity
  2. The partnership and S corporation basis limitations, which limit your losses to the extent of your basis in your partnership interest or S corporation stock
  3. The passive loss limitation, which limits your passive losses to the extent of your passive income unless an exception applies

 The TCJA tax reform added Section 461(l) to the tax code, and it applies to individuals (not corporations) for tax years 2018 through 2025.

The big picture under this new provision: You can’t use the portion of your business losses deemed by the new law to be an “excess business loss” in the current year. Instead, you’ll treat the excess business loss as if it were a net operating loss (NOL) carryover to the next taxable year.
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To determine your excess business loss, follow these three steps:

  1. Add the net income or loss from all your trade or business activities.
  2. If step 1 is an overall loss, then compare it to the maximum allowed loss amount: $250,000 (or $500,000 on a joint return).
  3. The amount by which your overall loss exceeds the maximum allowed loss amount is your new tax law–defined “excess business loss.”

Example. Paul invested $850,000 in a start-up business in 2018, and the business passed through a $750,000 loss to Paul. He has sufficient basis to use the entire loss, and it is not a passive activity. Paul’s wife had 2018 wages of $50,000, and they had other 2018 non-business income of $600,000.

Under prior law, Paul’s loss would offset all other income on the tax return and they’d owe no federal income tax. Under the TCJA tax reform that applies to years 2018 through 2025 (assuming the wages are trade or business income):

  • Their overall business loss is $700,000 ($750,000 – $50,000).
  • The excess business loss is $200,000 ($700,000 overall loss less $500,000).
  • $150,000 of income ($600,000 + $50,000 – $500,000) flows through the rest of their tax return.
  • They’ll have a $200,000 NOL to carry forward to 2019.

To avoid this ugly rule, you’ll need to keep your overall business loss to no more than $250,000 (or $500,000 joint). Your two big-picture strategies to make this happen are

  • accelerating business income, and
  • delaying business deductions.

Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have tax debt help questions, need Chicago business tax preparation, business entity creation, business insurance, or business compliance assistance please contact us online, or call our office toll free at 1-855-743-5765 or locally in Chicago or Indiana at 1-708-529-6604. Make sure to join our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

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General Information, REAL ESTATE

Act Now! Get Your 2019 Safety Net Expensing in Place.

Howard Tax Prep LLC

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Schedule-button-nb For 2018, you can elect the de minimis safe harbor to expense assets costing $2,500 or less ($5,000 with audited financial statements or something similar).

The term “safe harbor” means that the IRS will accept your expensing of the qualified assets if you properly abide by the rules of the safe harbor.

Here are four benefits of this safe harbor:

  1. Safe harbor expensing is superior to Section 179 expensing because you don’t have the recapture period that can complicate your taxes.
  2. Safe harbor expensing takes depreciation out of the equation.
  3. Safe harbor expensing simplifies your tax and business records because you don’t have the assets cluttering your books.
  4. The safe harbor does not reduce your overall ceiling on Section 179 expensing.

Here’s how the safe harbor works. Say you are a small business that elects the $2,500 ceiling for safe harbor expensing and you buy two desks costing $2,100 each. On the invoice, you see the quantity “two” and the total cost of $4,200, plus sales tax of $378 and a $200 delivery and setup charge, for a total of $4,778.

Before this safe harbor, you would have capitalized each desk at $2,389 ($4,778 ÷ 2) and then either Section 179 expensed or depreciated it. You would have kept the desks in your depreciation schedules until you disposed of them.

Now, with the safe harbor, you simply expense the desks as office supplies. This makes your tax life much easier.

To benefit from the safe harbor, you and I do a two-step process. It works like this:

Step 1. For safe harbor protection, you must have in place an accounting policy—at the beginning of the tax year—that requires expensing of an amount of your choosing, up to the $2,500 or $5,000 limit. I can help you with this.

Step 2. When I prepare your tax return, I make the election on your tax return for you to use safe harbor expensing. This requires that I attach the election statement to your federal tax return and file that tax return by the due date (including extensions).

If you want to use this safe harbor in 2018, we need to get this set up so that it is in place on January 1. Contact me at 855-743-5765, or email me at help@howardtaxprep.com

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