Interest to offset income received from the passive activity

[cpufreak3]

Hello,

I took out a loan to buy into a surgery center as a limited partner (passive activity). I received a K1 from the partnership with ordinary business income. How do use the interest I paid for my loan to offset the income received from the partnership? Thanks

[tagteam]

See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sca#en_US_2022_publink53061xd0e1075

Note that you need to itemize your deductions in order to deduct your investment interest and, as a result, your total itemized deductions need to exceed your standard deduction before it will have an impact on your return.

See also https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/what-are-deductible-investment-interest-e...

[cpufreak3]

Per the link:

"Investment interest is interest paid on money you borrowed that is allocable to property held for investment. It doesn't include any interest allocable to passive activities or to securities that generate tax-exempt income."

This is a passive activity. Additional, per the link at https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/what-are-deductible-investment-interest-e...:

"For example, say you borrowed $20,000 to buy a 10 percent stake in a friend's car wash. That stake is certainly an investment, but unless you were there washing cars (or doing some other work), it's a passive activity, because you're not materially involved running the business. Thus, you couldn't deduct the interest on the $20,000 loan as investment interest. However, you could use the interest to offset income you received from the passive activity."

Therefore, this does not seem like it can be deducted as investment interest on Schedule A. Therefore, I am trying to directly offset it from my passive gain from the same activity.

[tagteam]

Correct.

See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8582#en_US_2022_publink1000278175

[cpufreak3]

So how do I do this TurboTax?

[tagteam]

See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8582#en_US_2022_publink1000278249

I am not sure how you would enter this particular item of expense into TurboTax without resorting to Forms Mode (and even then, an override might be required)

[cpufreak3]

I figured out how to input this in TurboTax. In order to do so, on the "Describe the Partnership" screen, you must check: "I am required to pay supplemental business expenses on behalf of this partnership/LLC for which I am not reimbursed."

On the next screen, you click "Yes" to the question requiring you to pay expenses out of pocket.

After a few screens, there will be an option to input "Interest Expense to Finance Purchase of Partnership Interest."

This will correctly deduct/offset the partnership income in the generated forms.