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I'm a real estate tax guy and see this situation all the time with clients. Here's my take: You absolutely need to report your portion of the 1031 exchange on your personal return, which typically means filing Form 8824. The key thing most limited partners miss is that you need to adjust your basis in the new partnership interest. The exchange doesn't reset your basis - it carries over from your old partnership interest (with some possible adjustments). If you don't track this correctly, you could end up paying too much tax when you eventually sell or paying tax on phantom income during ownership. Also, check if you received any cash or other non-like-kind property (boot) as part of the exchange. That would be immediately taxable even though the main gain is deferred.
Thanks for this detailed response! The basis tracking part is what's confusing me. My K-1 has a supplemental statement about "tax basis capital" that changed after the exchange. Is this the basis I need to track, or is there something else I should be looking for? The statement mentions something about "704(c) forward section 1231 gain" that I don't understand.
The "tax basis capital" on your K-1 is related to your basis, but it's not necessarily the exact number you need to track for your personal tax situation. This gets complicated because partnerships can use different methods for tracking capital accounts. What you need to focus on is your "outside basis" in the partnership interest. Generally, your outside basis in the new partnership should equal your outside basis in the old partnership, adjusted for any boot received or liabilities assumed during the exchange. That "704(c) forward section 1231 gain" reference indicates deferred gain that's being tracked at the partnership level under section 704(c). This will affect how future depreciation and gains are allocated to you. It's essentially tracking your share of the built-in gain that was deferred in the 1031 exchange. When the new property is eventually sold (without another 1031), this deferred gain may become taxable to you.
Has anyone used TurboTax for reporting a K-1 from a 1031 exchange? I'm trying to figure out if I need to upgrade to their business version or if the premier version can handle this. Their support wasn't very helpful when I asked about form 8824.
Thanks for confirming! I'll stick with Premier then. Did TurboTax guide you through which numbers to enter where, or did you have to figure that out yourself? My supplemental statement has about 10 different numbers related to the exchange and I'm not sure which ones need to go on which lines of Form 8824.
TurboTax Premier can handle Form 8824, but honestly the guidance is pretty limited for complex partnership exchanges. You'll need to manually figure out which numbers from your supplemental statement go where on the form. I found myself constantly referring back to the IRS instructions for Form 8824 and Publication 544 to make sure I was entering things correctly. The software asks for the basic exchange information but doesn't really help you interpret the partnership-specific details from your K-1 supplemental statements. If your situation is straightforward it should work fine, but if you have complications like boot received or multiple properties involved, you might want to consider getting professional help rather than trying to navigate it solo in TurboTax.
Has anyone tried setting up a Donor Advised Fund? My accountant mentioned this as a way to bunch deductions like someone mentioned above, but still distribute the donations to our church over time. Apparently you get the tax deduction when you fund it, not when the money actually goes to the charity?
Yes! I set one up last year with Fidelity and it works great for this situation. You basically contribute a larger amount to the fund (I did 3 years worth of church donations), get the full tax deduction that year, and then distribute the money to your church or any charity on whatever schedule you want. The minimum to set it up was only $5k and there's no requirement on how quickly you have to distribute it.
I've been dealing with a similar situation with my small accounting practice LLC. One thing that's worked well for me is creating a clear separation between personal charitable giving and business community involvement. For my personal church donations (which are the majority), I use the bunching strategy someone mentioned above - I'll make 2-3 years worth of donations in December of alternating years to get over the standard deduction threshold. This at least gets me some tax benefit every few years. For my business, I focus on sponsorships and community involvement that have clear promotional value. For example, I sponsor our local church's financial literacy workshops and provide free tax prep seminars. I get my business name on materials, build relationships with potential clients, and can deduct these as legitimate marketing expenses. The key is making sure there's a genuine business purpose beyond just charitable giving. The documentation piece is crucial - I keep detailed records of any promotional materials, take photos of signage, and get written acknowledgments that specify what business benefit I received. This way if I ever get audited, I can clearly show these weren't just disguised charitable contributions. It's definitely possible to structure some of your giving to get tax benefits, but you need to be strategic about separating personal charity from legitimate business marketing expenses.
Do these update times apply to amended returns too? I filed a 1040X back in March and haven't seen any movement on the Where's My Amended Return tool.
Amended returns follow a completely different timeline than regular returns. The Where's My Amended Return tool typically updates every 3 weeks, not daily like WMR. According to IRS Publication 556, amended returns can take 16+ weeks to process, and the online tool reflects this slower pace. You won't see frequent updates like with regular returns - it's more of a "submitted/processing/completed" status that changes in major milestones rather than incremental daily updates.
might wanna try a different tax software tbh. I switched from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA and haven't looked back
TurboTax be charging way too much fr
Freya Thomsen
Has anyone actually been audited over mileage? I've been a 1099 contractor for 6 years and honestly just guesstimate my miles. Never had any issues.
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Omar Zaki
β’I got audited specifically over mileage deductions 2 years ago. Had to pay back over $3700 plus penalties because I couldn't prove my miles. They absolutely do check this stuff. Don't learn the hard way like I did!
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Luca Marino
As someone who's been through the 1099 contractor maze myself (freelance graphic designer), I can confirm what others have said about the temporary work location rule being your friend here. The key distinction is that you don't have a "regular" workplace - you're bouncing between different client sites that are all temporary by nature. One thing I'd add that hasn't been mentioned yet: make sure you're also tracking any trips between job sites during the same day. If you go from your home to Site A, then to Site B, then back home, ALL of those miles are deductible business miles, not just the initial trip from home. Also, with 24,000 miles, you're looking at potentially $15,720 in deductions at the current rate (24,000 Γ $0.655). That's a huge amount to leave on the table! Definitely worth getting this sorted out properly. The documentation advice from @Ravi Sharma is spot on - I learned that lesson during a small audit a few years back. Better to over-document than under-document when it comes to the IRS.
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