Is paying an employee with real estate a legal loophole to avoid income tax?

[Sig]

Yeah, keeping it simple, if I can buy a $1M condo in Miami it would be like $3500/month in principal/interest, $1400 in property taxes, $400 per month in insurance, $1200 month in HOA fees. Let's say 1/4th of it I use as my home office. I don't know what percent is the principal first year, 30%? So if my logic is correct for a home office I would get to deduct 25% of the 250k above the 750k I can deduct interest, property tax, HOA, and insurance fees? So like (3500)(.25)(.25)+(.25)(1400+400+1200)=968.75 plus 25% of the mortgage on the first 75% of the $3500 which will be like 30% principal the first year. So like 196.88. So that'll be like $14k per year extra I can deduct. By deducting 14k off my income for my home office I only save 39.35% of it which is about $5500. Still not enough to pay for even the 1.45% in Medicare my employer has to keep paying. I think I'll stay W2.

It's a bit more complicated than that. As @BMK indicated, you have to depreciate the improvements (but can't depreciate the land portion) generally under a 30 year straight line schedule. So the principal part of your mortgage isn't deductible in the way you think. The HOA fees, insurance, and interest may be deductible directly (or 25% in your example), the property tax may fall under SALT limits you're already going to hit in that example since you're talking about a passthrough. So something like $750/month * marginal rate of 39.35%=$295/month in tax savings.

BTW, it seems damn expensive to live in Florida! My property tax would be $875/month on a condo of that value, my insurance would be $200/month, and since I live in a house no HOA.....and I'm in what the Florida folks consider an "expensive" blue state in the mid-atlantic.

 

[Overnight]

...

BTW, it seems damn expensive to live in Florida! My property tax would be $875/month on a condo of that value, my insurance would be $200/month, and since I live in a house no HOA.....and I'm in what the Florida folks consider an "expensive" blue state in the mid-atlantic.

Location, location, location! It's expensive to live in the most popular place in Florida (Miami/Dade county, on the beach).

Contrast that with an area between the coast and say, Lake Okeechobee, where's there's nothing but farmland, and hell, you could not find a $1mil condo. It would be a $1mil house, and would be uuuuuuuuuuge

 

[Sig]

Location, location, location! It's expensive to live in the most popular place in Florida (Miami/Dade county, on the beach).

Contrast that with an area between the coast and say, Lake Okeechobee, where's there's nothing but farmland, and hell, you could not find a $1mil condo. It would be a $1mil house, and would be uuuuuuuuuuge

I mean how expensive it is after you pay the $1M for the house!

 

[kmgilroy89]

It's a bit more complicated than that. As @BMK indicated, you have to depreciate the improvements (but can't depreciate the land portion) generally under a 30 year straight line schedule. So the principal part of your mortgage isn't deductible in the way you think. The HOA fees, insurance, and interest may be deductible directly (or 25% in your example), the property tax may fall under SALT limits you're already going to hit in that example since you're talking about a passthrough. So something like $750/month * marginal rate of 39.35%=$295/month in tax savings.

BTW, it seems damn expensive to live in Florida! My property tax would be $875/month on a condo of that value, my insurance would be $200/month, and since I live in a house no HOA.....and I'm in what the Florida folks consider an "expensive" blue state in the mid-atlantic.

Real estate prices have doubled and tripled in the past decade. Miami has become a destination for the rich with the zero state income tax and being the only tropical metro area in the 48. If you want to live in a nice high rise then Miami Beach (separate city), Edgewater, Brickell, and Downtown are all pretty expensive.

 

[Sig]

Real estate prices have doubled and tripled in the past decade. Miami has become a destination for the rich with the zero state income tax and being the only tropical metro area in the 48. If you want to live in a nice high rise then Miami Beach (separate city), Edgewater, Brickell, and Downtown are all pretty expensive.

Yeah, I wasn't talking the purchase price (having lived in San Francisco that's actually cheap), it was the carry costs. What are they doing with that HOA fee, for example! I'm guessing insurance is high because of the hurricanes? And obviously they're replacing their income tax with property tax.

 

[qlai]

@Sig and all, I would like to domicile my Corp in Florida, and possibly just buy something inexpensive (both price and carry) through Corp. Any suggestions on which areas to look at? I will not care about schools but possibly of renting out the property would be nice option to have.

 

[Sig]

@Sig and all, I would like to domicile my Corp in Florida, and possibly just buy something inexpensive (both price and carry) through Corp. Any suggestions on which areas to look at? I will not care about schools but possibly of renting out the property would be nice option to have.

I'm not the FL expert, will defer to those who are.

 

[BMK]

@Sig and all, I would like to domicile my Corp in Florida, and possibly just buy something inexpensive (both price and carry) through Corp. Any suggestions on which areas to look at? I will not care about schools but possibly of renting out the property would be nice option to have.

Fort Myers Beach has some real estate opportunities...

FYI the town of Fort Myers Beach is not the same as the City of Fort Myers

BMK

 

[kmgilroy89]

Yeah, I wasn't talking the purchase price (having lived in San Francisco that's actually cheap), it was the carry costs. What are they doing with that HOA fee, for example! I'm guessing insurance is high because of the hurricanes? And obviously they're replacing their income tax with property tax.

There's a lot of amenities with these high rises. Valet parking, pools, tennis courts, game rooms, gyms, security, etc.

 

[jtrader33]

You can set up a 401K at Schwab, for example, and buy whatever you want in the account subject to the limitations on short sales and margin use. There are even ways to get around that.

Have you been able to successfully set up a retirement plan that can short equities? I put some effort into that a few years back but couldn’t find someone willing to bless it.