{"id":13934,"date":"2021-06-18T21:26:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T03:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wcginc.com\/kb\/rental-losses-with-an-s-corp\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:12:32","slug":"rental-losses-with-an-s-corp","status":"publish","type":"epkb_post_type_1","link":"https:\/\/wcginc.com\/kb\/rental-losses-with-an-s-corp\/","title":{"rendered":"Rental Losses with an S-Corp"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jason Watson<\/a> (Google+<\/a>)
\nUpdated September 2, 2014<\/p>\n

This content is not currently being supported.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, K-1 income from an S-Corp will be reported on Schedule E of your personal tax return since it is business investment income. If you do not materially participate in the S-Corp\u2019s operations, this can be a huge windfall if you are a rental property owner too. How does this play into S-Corps? Here we go-<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s presume that you have a rental loss of $50,000. Rental income is typically considered passive, meaning that you are not directly earning the income as you would with a job. Passive losses may be deducted from non-passive income such as wages, but there are limits. Passive loss limits for married taxpayers max out at $25,000, and that number decreases as your gross income increases.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Specifically, passive loss reduces $1 for every $2 over $100,000 adjusted gross income and by $150,000 (for married filing joint taxpayers) the passive loss deduction is $0. Bummer. Not all is lost however.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also presume that you are a minority investor in an S-Corp that earned $50,000 and reported the income on a K-1. Let\u2019s say you do NOT materially participate in the running of the S-Corp. Without the rental, you would be taxed on $50,000. Without the S-Corp you would only be able to deduct $25,000 worth of passive losses. But with both the rental and the S-Corp, you shelter $50,000 of your K-1 with your rental losses, and pay $0 tax. Cool, huh?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Granted, this is rare- most S-Corp shareholders actively participate and cannot offset their S-Corp income with rental losses. Although there might be some wiggle room with spouse A owning 90% of an S-Corp, for example, that he or she doesn\u2019t materially participate in. The same spouse A could then own 100% of the rental properties. This can get convoluted for sure, and careful tax planning must be exercised.<\/p>\n

As a side note, it is NOT a good idea to make an S-Corp election on your LLC if it owns rental property. Rental property by definition is passive income (unless you are a real estate professional as defined by the IRS) and therefore not subject to self-employment tax. But if you run your rentals through an S-Corp, you will be required to perform payroll and you\u2019ll be paying Social Security and Medicare taxes which are the same as self-employment tax. Don\u2019t do it. You\u2019ll artificially increase your tax liability by essentially converting passive \/ unearned income into earned income.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nTaxpayer’s Comprehensive Guide to LLCs and S Corps : 2019 Edition<\/span><\/strong>
\nThis KB article is an excerpt from our book which is available in paperback from Amazon<\/a>, as an eBook for Kindle<\/a> and as a PDF<\/a> from ClickBank. We used to publish with iTunes and Nook, but keeping up with two different formats was brutal. You can cruise through these KB articles, click on the fancy buttons below or visit our webpage which provides more information at-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Taxpayer’s Comprehensive Guide to LLCs and S Corps<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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