Top 10 Tax Deductions for Real Estate Investors



As a real estate investor you can legally deduct almost 100% of your taxable income. This is completely legal and in fact this is one of the biggest benefit of being a landlord or real estate investor.

Please understand, I am not a tax advisor or expert. Always find and consult with a capable CPA (certified public accountant) who is experienced with Real Estate taxes.

Here are the Top 10 tax deductions for most real estate investor.


  1. INTEREST
    mortgage interest - this is the interest fee you pay your mortgage company on your loan
  2. DEPRECIATION
    for residential you can depreciate your property for 27.5 years
    for commercial properties you can depreciate your property for 39 years
    what that means is, you can divide the value of your property by 27.5 and deduct that depreciation amount from your taxable income every year.
  3. REPAIRS
    any repair expenses are tax deductible in the year that you did the repair.
  4. LOCAL TRAVEL EXPENSES
    car expense, mileage expense (you do have to keep track), gasoline
  5. LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL EXPENSES
    airplane tickets (air fare), hotel, car rental, gasoline
  6. HOME OFFICE
    If you dedicate a part of your home as an office (must be designated as your office), you can deduct a portion of that square footage as rental expense which is tax deductible.
  7. EMPLOYEES or CONTRACTORS
    All of these expenses whether you have employees or hiring third party contractors are tax deductible in the year that you hired and paid them.
  8. CASUALTY LOSSES
  9. INSURANCE
    landlord or rental insurance
    insurance are expenses and these are always tax deductible.
  10. PROFESSIONAL / LEGAL SERVICES
    Property Management
       if you have somebody helping to manage your properties - that is a tax write-off

    Attorneys
       if you hire an attorney to help write your leasing contract - that is a tax write-off

    Marketing Services
       if you hire an web developer, or paid for any advertising to get your properties rented / sold - that is a tax write-off

    Real Estate Agents / Realtors
       if you are working with a real estate agent to help your property get rented - the real estate agent's commission is a tax deductible expense.

As you can see the above list of Top 10 Tax Deductions for Real Estate Investor are quite powerful.

My CPA always say... if you have enough real-estate properties, it is possible that you will not have to pay any tax at all.  Having said that... if done right, as a real-estate investor you should not have to pay for any taxes.




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