Leaderboard

Still, there are better ways than others. I don't believe making the client happy can be the rationale in assigning values for real estate (or anything). It's one thing to play around with Section 179 or bonus depreciation with equipment. That's allowed. But you can't divvy up a tractor and loader sold together and assign values to each one at will. There is an actual price in there for each one, and if you don't know it, you've got to try to be as accurate as you can. You've got to use some logical method to assign value to the land with rental property. And again, respectfully, I'd never use your method. Friends 4 Ever nonetheless.

I'm sorry for the loss of your long time client and friend. I hope that the information you are able to pass along to the client's family about her motives and her statements like "sham marriage" will be of some help to them.

Sorry about the loss of your friend/client... but I am looking forward to updates.

I can understand your sadness Bill. When we establish a friendship over many years, and then lose them, it almost makes our profession seem a little bit less important. Bless you.

Even before Trump "build the wall" slogan there was no way your client spouse would be a candidate for papers as you feared, it's easier to buy an assault rifle then an immigration judge to give the okay.

This issue will become common - unfortunately - for many near us. Those that had fire damage will be getting revised tax bills. Gripes me the local news keeps talking about a zero amount, when the truth is the zero amount will only apply to the improvements lost. Those not aware will get more pain, when they see their tax bill only cut in roughly half, as their land is probably more valuable or close to the improvements (like mine). Thankfully our assessor is good, and will no doubt correct the bad information before the bills are revised.

Respectfully, this seems as unreasonable to me as your assessor’s errors do to you. What the taxpayer wants to do and how long he’s going to own a property mean zero. I get what you’re saying, and IRS is oblivious, but ok I am shutting up now. Respectfully. Friends 4 Ever.

Exactly. I have had several people want to get together and determine what steps need to be taken to prepare for the new plan. What's the point? Even if they pass a tax bill, we don't honestly know what it'll look like right now and it's not a certainty they pass anything. Honestly, taxes NEVER get significantly more simple.

It's always about a tractor for me. How is we've been friends all this time (4 Ever), and you don't know this? Max said it's best to use the property tax assessments to get the proper ratio. Your mileage may vary with your assessor and Medlin's.

Not that it matters, but this made me look at my tax bill again. CA, Prop 13, bought in 1994. Probably will rent it out in a few years. My Land figure is currently .45 of the gross taxable.

Yeah, I always keep the print off certificates also. I keep a running total on the outside of a file for easy review.

I sure hope this doesn't become the case. I pulled out the trust and will last night and it is from 2004. All the monies are to go to the daughter with the disability as the other daughter is well off. The son in law has contacted an attorney in Boston, although house is in western part of the state. My guess is that "husband" will not want any trouble as he is probably on some kind of lifetime probation. How would it look for him going from preying on minors to senior citizens. Don't know how some people look themselves in the mirror.

I just realized this was probably the point you were making. Sorry. Daylight Wasting Time - 2. Rita - O

I did renew today. There were boxes to enter my total CPE, and my ethics-hours CPE, for each year. I have all the certificates, in case my numbers don't match theirs. Although I did include an all-day seminar that I'm going to in another week, for this year.

...................................................

If you have a PDF iFilter installed, you can search the contents of all the PDF copies of returns. You have to also change the Windows Indexing Options to index file contents of PDF files (Advanced, File Types)... and wait for the indexing to complete.

I also look up the property tax assessment. If the land is say 15% of the tax assessor’s total, I assign 15% of the number you’re working with to land.

I usually use the property tax bill (supposed to be on all bills, hollow laugh) or property card record from the online assessor's database (almost always has the info). If I still can't find it, I call the town assessor's office. They have all the splits between land and building values.

If the criterion for business use is that one's significant other won't get in your vehicle, then I'm in great shape. I can start deducting mileage on my car, because my wife absolutely refuses to ride in it.

This thread is specifically about rental property and the basis of land for depreciation. How did it become about a tractor? My rental property method is fully justified by what Max wrote.

An update to a now continuing saga that has ended sadly. My client fell in her home and broke her hip. The "husband" who did not live there found her and called 911. She spent 2 weeks in hospital then was able to go home. I was in touch with her regularly until she left the hospital. I called yesterday and could not reach her so I called a daughter in SF and was told that she passed away a few days ago. She had fallen again, laid there for 24 hours and then passed away in the hospital due to pneumonia that daughter said she had beginnings of when she originally left the hospital. So now son in law calls me and he is my best friend. I gave him whatever information he needed as he will head east soon. Now here's the very sad part. Daughters were here when she died. They went to the house to retrieve personal belongings and now husband is living there and would not let them in. I decided to Google this guy's name to find out what he did to be incarcerated for 21 years. He is a sex offender and convicted of raping a minor in 1993. Also had other similar convictions. This will hit the papers if it gets ugly. I will be mostly out of this, let the attorney and authorities handle it. I will miss my client, she was a character and we always had a good comedic back and forth. This is what happens when a special client becomes a part of your life and dies, you feel the loss just like a family member. If only she told me of her plans to marry this guy I might have googled him then and relayed the info to her and hopefully change her mind. I'm sure many of you can relate to this. Take care of yourselves, and your clients (if they let you). Bill