Learn how Zibo helps independent landlords take full advantage of real estate tax benefits while ensuring a stress-free tax season.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
Investment properties can be a great way to build wealth thanks to appreciation, rent payments that cover your mortgage, and real estate tax benefits. But in order to maximize those tax breaks, landlords must stay organized and create a system to track rental income, expenses, and other documentation.
In this article, we’ll share how using a solution like Zibo helps to ensure a stress-free tax season while allowing you to take full advantage of the real estate tax benefits for independent landlords.
1. Manage your rental business online
If you’re still managing your rental business financials in a complicated mix of spreadsheets, disparate bank accounts, and file cabinets — it’s time to graduate to an online platform.
Zibo is a one-stop-shop for rental property finances, giving landlords all the tools they need to manage their rental business online. Zibo offers everything from rent collection, banking and expense management, and even access to competitive mortgages and insurance — in one platform, with one login.
Automatically tracking rent payments, security deposits, and expenses online throughout the year will help you stay organized for tax season. With everything in one place, you’ll enjoy the real estate tax benefits and no longer have to track down a year’s worth of transactions come tax season.
2. Get automated rent rolls
A rent roll is a report where landlords can view the gross rent amount collected on an investment property. This snapshot helps you understand the total income generated by your properties, as well as the overall financial performance of your real estate investment. It also can help predict a property’s future income and financial performance. Rent rolls are often required when refinancing or selling your property or if you’re hiring a new property manager, and also help you complete your tax return.
If you collect rent online with Zibo, you can export your latest rent roll in seconds by clicking “Reports” in the left-hand navigation bar. In addition to rent totals, Zibo rent rolls include key information like owner’s name, address, unit type, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and lease start and end dates.
3. Manage and tag expenses online
Landlords are able to deduct the costs of managing a rental property from their total taxable income. You report and categorize these real estate expenses on form Schedule E.
Real estate investors can deduct a range of expenses, including costs for advertising a property listing, vehicle mileage and other travel expenses, maintenance costs like lawn care and pest control, insurance, mortgage interest, and many more. These expenses add up quickly, so be sure to take advantage of this important real estate tax benefit.
Rather than manually going through transactions from multiple bank accounts at the end of the year, Zibo helps you track and categorize expenses in real-time. As you pay your property-related bills and make purchases, simply tag a Schedule E category and assign them to a specific property from the “All Transactions” tab. Zibo allows you to categorize expenses from all of your linked bank accounts — not just your Zibo bank account.
4. View your overall financial performance
While tax season is only a few months, it’s important to keep an eye on the financial health of your real estate investment throughout the year. Cash flow — or, the amount of money flowing into and out of a rental property — is a key metric for landlords. Your goal as a real estate investor is to have a positive cash flow (i.e., your total income is higher than your expenses).
The Zibo dashboard provides a quick view of the financial performance for an individual property or your entire real estate portfolio. You’ll be able to track key details over time and by property, including the total cash balance across your bank accounts, expenses, and rent payments — all on one easy-to-navigate screen.
Unlock real estate tax benefits with Zibo
Landlords who want to capture all of the real estate tax benefits available to them must keep their financials organized. Zibo’s all-in-one rental property finances platform has built-in features designed specifically to help landlords prepare for tax season.
For more real estate tax benefits and tips, read our blog post 7 Landlord Tax Tips to Get Organized for Tax Season.
DISCLAIMER
Zibo, Inc. and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.