House flip - taxation questions

[mazlovski]

Facts:

1. House purchased in 2016 under an LLC that has two partners (50/50 profit sharing); it will be listed for sale in 2017
2. LLC will be taxed as an s corp to avoid some of the self-employment taxes by doing a distribution to shareholders; 

Questions:

1. What is a reasonable distribution to shareholders? 40%? 
2. House was purchased for 140k; between taxes, fees, etc. on the HUD statement, the total paid was 150k - this is my new basis, correct?
3. Capital vs expense
1. We did some major upgrades such as driveway, kitchen, roof and those are obviously capital expenditures that increase my cost basis
2. What about miscellaneous items such as: (do I have an option here to capitalize or expense?)
1. Dumpster rental 
2. Yard cleanup
3. General labor
4. Clothing
5. Personal miles
6. Meals
4. Missing invoices
1. I did not receive receipts for some of the services; how do I capitalize these costs if I do not have documentation?
2. Do I have to issue 1099s to contractors that I hire? If so, is there a threshold amount? 

[Critter]

I highly recommend that you  sit down with a tax professional locally who understands "flipping" to get educated on your situation since making mistakes can cost you big in the end.

Getting business advice from a public forum is not wise and will not hold up in an IRS audit.


To file a return for a multi-member LLC, partnership, S corporation, or C corporation, you need TurboTax Business, which is a different product from Home & Business. TurboTax Business is not available online. It's available only as a program that you install on your Windows computer from a CD or a download. You can learn more about TurboTax Business, and purchase it, at the following link.

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://turbotax.intuit.com/small-business-taxes/">https://turbotax.intuit.com/small-business-taxes/...>


An S-corp can make distributions, but the rules are complex.
This article has a reasonably clear discussion of what is required:
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.aicpa.org/Publications/TaxAdviser/2014/January/Pages/Nitti_jan2014.aspx">http://www.aicpa...>
Also see the following IRS discussion: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/S-Corporation-Stock-and-Debt-Basis">h...>

The IRS position is that an S-Corporation MUST pay a reasonable compensation to an officer before non-wage distributions may be made.  The reason is that they feel that non-wage distributions when no wages are paid is an avoidance of social security taxes.  From the IRS website at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=203100,00.html">http://www.irs.gov/businesses/smal...> :

"Reasonable Compensation

S corporations must pay reasonable compensation to a shareholder-employee in return for services that the employee provides to the corporation before non-wage distributions may be made to the shareholder-employee. The amount of reasonable compensation will never exceed the amount received by the shareholder either directly or indirectly.

Distributions and other payments by an S corporation to a corporate officer must be treated as wages to the extent the amounts are reasonable compensation for the service rendered to the corporation.

Several court cases support the authority of the IRS to reclassify other forms of payments to a shareholder-employee as a wage expense and subject to employment taxes."

The page cites Joly vs. Commissioner, 211 F.3d 1269 (6th Cir., 2000) as one judicial finding on the IRS's authority to reclassify distributions to wages subject to employment taxes.  Factors to determine reasonable compensation are given in the ruling.

The AICPA has an interesting article on this topic here: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.aicpa.org/publications/taxadviser/2011/august/pages/nitti_aug2011.aspx">http://www.aicpa....>

You also might want to read a lively discussion on the Tax Almanac website here: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Discussion_Forum_-_Tax_Questions">http://www.taxalmanac.org/inde...> .  The substance of the discussion seems to be that taking a reasonable salary is not optional and, if you took distributions with no salary, the distributions should be changed to salary with appropriate employment tax returns being filed (late, if necessary.)

The fastest way to get audited as an S-Corporation is to not report wages to officers on page 1 of the return.

[Hal_Al]

If you are in the house flipping business, you cannot avoid self employment tax on your income, by calling it an LLC or S corp. 

On the other hand, if this house is a one time thing, you have investment income (or loss) not business income.

See: https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2795603-where-do-i-file-the-profits-from-a-house-flip-i-have-the-d...