Travis H. Long, CPA, Inc. Blog

Originally published in the Cedar Street Times

February 6, 2015

So you decided to put your home up for rent for two weeks surrounding the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.  Fortunately for you, it was rumored that Arnold Palmer once spent the afternoon on your front lawn.  As a result, there are so many prospective renters that you are having to beat them away with golf clubs.

Finally you settle on a renter and a nice fat $40,000 check for two weeks!  Score!  But then you remember this pesky thing you do each year called taxes, and you start wondering how you are going to report this on your tax returns.  The surprising answer is that it won’t get reported at all.  There is a rule which states if you rent your home for 14 days or less during the year, you do not have to report the income.  All $40,000 is tax free!  But what if your renters need an extension of one day?  Don’t do it!  If you do, the entire amount is now taxable on Schedule E.

In this issue, we are discussing Schedule E – Supplemental Income and Loss.  Prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog if you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns.

Schedule E is a two-page form used to report income from rental real estate, royalties, and income from partnerships, s-corporations, trusts, and estates.  Part I handles the reporting of income and expenses of rental real estate and royalties.  There is a section regarding rental real estate that asks for the number of days rented at fair market value and the number of days of personal use.  This information is necessary in order to apply limitations regarding the rental of personal residences and vacation homes.  Any personal use will affect the allowable deductions to some extent.  (See my articles “Renting Your Vacation Home” on my website originally published August 10 and 24 of 2012 for more details.)

All expenses related to caring for your rental real estate can be deducted.  Besides costs such as property taxes, interest, repairs, etc., you can also use the standard mileage rate (56 cents per mile for 2014) to deduct any rental related mileage you drive.  If your property requires you to travel away from home overnight, you can deduct lodging and 50 percent of your meals as well.

If rental property generates a loss, there are several tests that must be applied near the bottom of Schedule E page one to determine if the losses will be allowed, or suspended for use in future years.  You can only take losses to the extent that you have an investment at-risk.  Form 61K-198 is used to determine this.  There are also rules limiting the amount of losses you can use against other income if the losses come from passive activities.  Rental real estate is generally considered a passive activity, and Form 8582 is used to determine if your losses will be limited.

Part II of Schedule E begins on page two and summarizes income and losses from flow through activities of partnerships and s-corporations.  Your share of these activities is reported to you on a Form K-1.   Again, at-risk and passive activity loss limits are applied.  Your basis in the underlying partnership or s-corporation activity as well as your level of participation and type of ownership interest are considered in these calculations.

Part III covers your share of estate and trust activities reported to you on a K-1 in a similar fashion as in part II.  The main difference being that there are generally no at-risk limitations to worry about.

Part IV covers income or losses from Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits.  These are essentially mortgage-backed securities: a solid product which earned a bad reputation during the financial crisis from 2007-2010 when sub-prime mortgages were bundled and sold together.

Part V summarizes the income and losses from the first four parts of Schedule E and pulls in farm land rentals as well which are calculated on a separate Form 4835.

Getting back to your $40,000 two-week rental.  It turns out that the Arnold Palmer that spent an afternoon on your front lawn was simply a glass of watered-down iced tea and lemonade, and your renters backed out.  Better luck next time…

In two weeks we will discuss Schedule F – Profit or Loss from Farming.

Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.