Common Area Maintenance (CAM), Insurance, and Tax (C.A.M.I.T.) reconciliation is the process by which landlords and property managers reconcile the actual expenses incurred for common area maintenance, insurance, and property taxes against the amounts tenants have paid.
One of Biden’s proposed tax changes is reducing a real estate investor’s ability to 1031 property.
A 1031 exchange allows landlords to roll forward gains into the next property.
Like playing Monopoly when we were kids…
Trading three green houses for one big red hotel.
The proposed change caps eligible 1031 gains at $500k.
Now, these proposed changes are highly unlikely to ever see the light of day.
But it got me thinking -
If 1031s were ever curtailed or even eliminated, how much would that impact real estate investors?
I feel like we’d see more financing activity and “hold forever” models be deployed.
I had a very scary conversation with the IRS Taxpayer Advocate last week. Very scary.
Tax pros please repost this.
This is a conversation tax pros should be aware of and honestly, this should upset both Daniel Werfel and the Internal Revenue Service.
Poll for tax pros ONLY at the end.
It won't upset Daniel Werfel and The IRS; however, it should.
I rarely open a case with The Taxpayer Advocate. I have been a CPA for 17 years and this is my fourth case with them.
I have a client who I have handled payroll for since inception over ten years ago. We e-file 941's and all taxes are paid in full and on time electronically.
We got a 941 notice concerning Q3 2021 in late 2023. The notice is totally bogus.
The IRS and I have gone back and forth via Certified Mail four times and the IRS keeps making the problem worse. It really feels to me like they 100% ignore the package I send them and do not read the letters I keep sending them. I sent them proof of payment, additional signed and dated copies of 941 forms, etc. They move the payments around from period to period and honestly seem not to understand my letter and they refuse to reach out to me by phone. Now we are back to the original problem.
The IRS was just shy of placing a levy on my client for almost $60,000.
So I opened a case with the Tax Payer Advocate.
The Tax Payer Advocate agent called me and we had a good talk last week. She assured me I was right and that the taxpayer owed nothing; however, it might take the agent 15 weeks or more to convince the IRS they were wrong. She put a 15 week hold on the account.
I asked the agent how long it to took them to realize I was right and the IRS was wrong. She said maybe a half hour. She told me I sent her everything she needed the first time. She said it was obvious what was wrong.
Basically, she said somehow the IRS cleared out the Q3 2021 941 payment and 941 filed in 2021 and put another one in a few months ago incorrectly. She said it is clear as day what is wrong.
So we talked for awhile and she said:
Her case load has tripled since 2019.
She said the cases she sees now the IRS is wrong almost every time.
She said The IRS correspondence system is beyond broken. Her words, not mine.
She said the IRS broke during Covid and still has not recovered.
Then the part that just floored me. Understand the long time policy of The Taxpayer Advocate is only contact them as a last resort. Try to work the problem with the IRS hard yourself first.
I told her another problem I am having and how many times the IRS and I have gone back and forth. She told me I was wasting my time and I should have opened a Taxpayer Advocate case several months ago.
She said I need to open cases faster...
I am still shocked by this.
Note I am going to open a second Taxpayer Advocate Case this week because I just got a fifth notice from the IRS for a different client and I 100% feel that are ignoring every package I mail to them via Certified Mail.
Daniel Werfel, stop prancing around Washington DC and bragging about auditing high income taxpayers and instead focus on fixing the IRS correspondence system, upgrading the phone system and upgrading the ancient computer system.
Please.
Pretty please.
If you keep going back and forth with the IRS, maybe you should open a Taxpayer Advocate case sooner as well.
Poll for tax pros only please. Does my phone call with the Taxpayer Advocate surprise you?
#cpa #ea #irs #incpas #aicpa #danielwerfel
Most significant about this week's AI updates:
1. A ChatGPT desktop app that can see your screen removes the need for you to navigate to the web app and find words for what you're stuck on
2. Combine this with really good voice, and you're now talking with the assistant as you're working
Unlike typing in a text box, it's something our brains are already wired to do
It's akin to a person standing over your shoulder, and verbally explaining a problem to them
The capabilities of the underlying model haven't changed much
But the ability to talk to it while it sees what you see, and work where you already work is a big step
The desktop app is rolling out now for MacOS, new improved voice support is said to be coming in the next few weeks