LGT's Profit Sense

A few years ago, I wrote an article regarding lease options, and it caused quite a bit of fanfare. Due to numerous hits, we feel it’s time for a refresher as well as to dive into a little more detail. The structuring of lease options needs to be scrutinized to ensure that the IRS does not arrive and re-characterize the lease option as a sale.

As we approach the summer months and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts is in full effect, we want to provide you with some additional information as it relates to rental real estate enterprises and the flow-through qualified business income deduction (QBID) for individuals.

I am Lee Ann Collins, Managing Partner at Lane Gorman Trubitt, and recently I found myself awake instead of peacefully sleeping. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France was burning, and I watched the news feeds while praying with the rest of the world. The amazing emergency service teams in Paris were able to put out the fire, saving many lives and the rose window. It had me thinking about how buildings and monuments like the cathedral are a mark of those that came before us. They take a community of people to build and maintain.  Long after the architect, builder, and owner are gone, the testament to their vision and dedication remains.

Through the new tax law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), an economic incentive program has been enacted to help prop up and foster growth in certain low-income communities. These communities are typically the hardest hit by job layoffs due to closure and/or relocation of vital local businesses.

Over the last six months our Construction Industry team here at Lane Gorman Trubitt has been working on producing an informative video series covering the new revenue recognition guidance and how it will impact how contractors consider and account for revenue on its contracts with customers. During that time we have fielded questions about this topic and its impact on the construction industry. Here are the some of the most frequently asked questions.

On the campaign trail, President Trump pledged that tax reform under his leadership would target carried interests — more widely known in the real estate industry as the “promote” in partnership agreements or operating agreements for limited liability companies (LLCs) that are treated as partnerships for tax purposes. In the end, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) only modifies the rules for carried interests, largely preserving their favorable tax treatment, rather than eliminating that treatment.

Real estate industry among the big winners on new tax law

By passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in late December 2017, Congress granted the holiday wishes of many involved in real estate. While the TCJA brought good cheer for the business community in general, the real estate industry is particularly likely to reap some lucrative rewards.

Both the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA") and Congress’s massive new spending package received widespread media coverage, but a couple of provisions that incentivize investments in low income housing have largely gone under the radar. One provision in the tax law offers significant tax breaks for investors looking to defer or abate capital gains taxes, while the spending bill boosts the Low Income Housing Tax Credit ("LIHTC").

The more people come to your site, the more likely they are to become clients or customers. Continuing to drive people to your site is beneficial for your overall business. In this last installment of the search engine optimization (“SEO”) series, we’ll be covering a few more tips that will help bring traffic to your site again and again.

You would normally be right if you thought a dentist could not qualify as a “real estate professional”, allowed to deduct rental real estate losses — after all, the IRS thought the same thing. In this case you would be wrong, though. The U.S. Tax Court found that a dentist who also operated a real estate business qualified for the real estate professional exception, based largely on his extensive documentation of the hours he’d spent.