For independent real estate agents, it can be difficult to find the time to manage your finances. For many real estate agents who run their own agency, taking care of your clients, and developing new leads, can eat into your time. You may find tax preparation moving down your priority list. However, you do not want to make the mistake of being surprised when tax season rolls around.
Taking the time to look at your finances now can help you to make sure that everything is in order and that you are taking advantage of all possible tax deductions available to you when April arrives. Finding the right tax deductions can help save your business thousands of dollars each year. To help get you started, here is a look at just a few ways that your real estate company can save money on taxes this year:
Commissions Paid
There are several tax deductions that you can take as a real estate agent. An important one to keep in mind is that you can deduct commissions that you have paid to employees or business partners. As a business owner, paying commissions is a cost of doing business, and the IRS generally considers commissions paid to be a fully deductible business expense.
This is an important deduction to remember to take as it can represent significant money saved or a lot of money left on the table if you do not take advantage of this deduction. When you go to fill out your tax paperwork, deductions for commissions paid would be placed on your Schedule C tax form on the 10th expense line.
Marketing Expenses
As a small business owner and sole proprietor, it is likely that you invest a significant amount of money in marketing and advertising your business. Even with the advent of cost-effective marketing methods such as creating social media accounts for your business, it is likely that you still spend a large amount of money marketing your business and listings by purchasing signs, flyers, and advertisements in local papers. Many real estate agents also outsource their social media and content marketing to experts, which is an added expense.
Fortunately, marketing and advertising costs can also be deducted as a business expense. Even money spent developing your website and running digital ads on social media and Google can be deducted as marketing expenses. These deductions can be made on Line 8 of your Schedule C tax form.
Fees, Licenses, and Memberships
A common expense for independent real estate agents is annual fees for things such as license renewals, professional association memberships, and multiple listing service (MLS) dues. Fortunately, many of these fees can be deducted as a cost of doing business. Money paid towards premiums for general business insurance and errors and omissions insurance are also both fully deductible business expenses as well.
It is important to keep track of everything that you spend maintaining your business and professional memberships. This will help ensure that you take advantage of all tax deductions available to you.
Deduct Travel Expenses
Of course, unless you are lucky enough to have only local clients within a few miles of your home or office, it is likely that you do a lot of driving, and the miles can add up fast. This can mean spending more money fueling and maintaining your car than the average driver. Fortunately, you can deduct $0.575 per mile you drive for your business in 2020. You may also be able to deduct maintenance and repair costs for your vehicle as well.
Keeping track of all the tax deductions and credits available to you as an independent real estate agent can quickly become overwhelming, and it is easy to forget a credit or deduction. Contact us to learn how Incentax’s streamlined process can help you to identify and maximize all the tax credits available to your real estate company. This can help to significantly reduce your tax liability.