Seriously, does this work?

Reply #4

Piaceri — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:26:23 GMT

Actually, if you buy investment real estate property, like rent houses or strip centers, ordinarily you can write off the cost of that property (called depreciation) over the life of the property - 31.5 years is the last number I remember hearing. Some property can be written off directly through what the IRS calls a section 179, but I am not clear on whether it applies to real estate.

You have to consider, too, that if you are buying this property as investment property, you will need expens... [ More ]

Reply #3

ambelamba — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:44:16 GMT

But business owners use business expense for tax write-off. Maybe I should claim the prize as an LLC

Reply #2

savagegoose — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:55:21 GMT

a company is a seperate tax entity.

Reply #1

Stack47 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:52:01 GMT

Where you got the money to start the firm is irrelevant but I do have a lottery relative answer.

The IRS allows us to deduct up to the amount we win as expenses. For instance if you won $10,000 on a scratch off that becomes gambling income and if you had $10,000 worth of losing tickets, you can deduct it as gambling losses. Sounds easy but if you're called in for an audit, you have to prove you actually bought the tickets and they didn't come from dumpster diving.

It would be nice if all o... [ More ]

Seriously, does this work?

ambelamba — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:46:30 GMT

Let's pretend that I won $14 millions as cash value. I pay $4millions for tax.

Then I set up my own real estate management firm and buy properties through my management firm, as the source of income. So technically the expense to buy the properties are business expense.

Then can I use them as a tax write-off? Seriously, I won't be surprised if people like Trump use this trick every year.