Tax season often emerges as a challenging time for real estate investment managers, particularly when faced with the intricate task of collecting and distributing Schedule K-1 forms to investors. This crucial but complex process, essential for reporting each investor’s share of earnings, losses, and deductions, can become quite stressful given the potential for errors and inefficiencies. The need to ensure timely delivery only adds another layer of pressure, which compounds as your client base grows. However, technology has evolved to offer innovative solutions that can streamline tax processes, ensuring compliance and efficiency. In this article, we’ll explore key tax season tips for real estate investment management companies and explain how companies can leverage technology to their advantage.
Embrace digital record-keeping
In the realm of real estate investment, maintaining accurate records is paramount. Digital record-keeping is not only more efficient than paper-based methods but also minimizes the risk of human error and stores organization or individual contact data in one easily accessible place. After all, tracking down information at the last minute is like chasing unicorns. You might get lucky, but creating a record system that contains all relevant information earlier is the better option. Be sure to include:
- Tax ID numbers
- Project name
- Address
- Entity type, such as LLC, corporation, single-owner, subchapter S subsidiary, etc.
- A way to verify contact information for your investors
- Equity/owner share for each investment
- Contributions, distributions, and unreturned capital information
Implement automated expense tracking
Invest in cloud-based real estate investment management software with robust accounting tools that allow for real-time tracking of income and expenses. Keeping track of expenses for each property can be cumbersome. But doing so is vital to your bottom line. Automating expense tracking can save time and reduce errors. Look for expense management tools that can categorize expenses automatically and integrate with your accounting system. Some tools also offer features like receipt scanning and automatic vendor payments. While a common objection to investing in software is the price tag, the cost is far less than what many wind up spending on additional headcount.
Leverage data analytics for decision-making
In real estate, understanding market trends and property performance is crucial for making informed decisions. Use data analytics tools to analyze property portfolios and market trends. This information can be instrumental in making strategic decisions that affect your tax liability.
Defer income and accelerate expenses
Deferring income into the next year, such as delaying the closing of a property sale or collecting overdue rent, lets investors delay tax liabilities for an entire year, providing extra time to plan for offsetting that income. Conversely, accelerating expenses by making deductible purchases or repairs before the year’s end can reduce taxable income for the current year to lessen your tax liability.
Provide information to your tax professional or CPA
Your CPA needs an organized, accurate record to file your business return. Whether you are using database formats or multiple spreadsheets, set up your system to automatically pull information from individual records into a single spreadsheet document to eliminate human errors such as duplication or incorporating postings among entities. Transfer your investment management records to your CPA in a secure format.
Distribute K-1s to investors
Possibly the most daunting challenge for investment managers during tax season comes from having to collect and distribute K-1s for investors, keeping them organized and efficient, and ensuring compliance. This process is so time-consuming that it’s not uncommon for investment management teams to spend the entire first quarter of the year just on K-1s alone, distracting them from value-added tasks that contribute to profitability.
But it doesn’t have to be this way, thanks to dedicated real estate investment management software. Once your CPA provides you with K-1s, the right platform will establish a secure, streamlined, frictionless system to share them with your investors. Be sure your system allows your investors 24/7 self-serve access to financial documents. Posting these records behind a secure login on your website enhances transparency and saves a lot of time.
Here’s how Jon Perlet, General Partner at Equity Colorado Inc., describes the effect that dedicated real estate investment management software has had on K-1 distribution and his business in general:
“We are saving so much processing time. Our quarter-end process and K-1 year-end reporting has gone from days to minutes. It is so beneficial having all our investor information consolidated in one system compared to many separate Excel spreadsheets. We have reduced our need for spreadsheets for tracking purposes by about 80%.”
Beyond the expense and time demands, investors may lose all or part of their package, or the reports could be lost in the shipping process. For all these reasons, having a system in place that organizes your records and digitally distributes each K-1 to your investor pool is incredibly important, especially during this already stressful time.
Stay informed about tax law changes
Tax laws, especially those pertaining to real estate, are subject to frequent changes. Staying informed is critical, and it pays to invest in continued education for your team. Many software providers also offer webinars and updates on the latest tax laws and regulations.
Tax season shouldn’t be a period of stress for real estate investment management companies. Embracing technology and its myriad solutions can help not only streamline your tax processes but also uncover valuable insights and strategies for growth.
