Happy New Year! Or as Uncle Sam would like to say “Show Me The Money!”. For us property managers and landlords, it’s time to be making progress on our biggest IRS obligation; filing 1099’s. Fortunately, Rentec Direct makes it as simple as possible. Now… choose your adventure:
Adventure 1: My CPA, or somebody else, does my 1099 filing.
If your CPA takes care of all your 1099s, you can use Rentec to provide them a report with the exact information they need. Head over to Financial Reports, and within the Tax Reports area, choose “1099 Tax Assistant”. If you are a private landlord, you’ll also want to print out the Schedule-E assistant report which will provide your tax adviser everything necessary to fill in your personal Schedule-E. Unless your properties are lumped together for tax purposes, it’s most common to print a Schedule-E report for each property. Most CPAs have to gather all this information from your records themselves, and many have a flat fee per form. If you provide them these reports, you’ve done most of the work for them, so asking for a discount on their per-form fee or requesting that they just bill hourly is not an unreasonable request.
Also consider how much your CPA charges to file 1099s on your behalf. I’ve seen charges anywhere from $10 to $100 per form. If you are a Rentec Direct subscriber, you can do these automatically and electronically for as little as $1.25 per form. See our earlier article on electronic 1099-misc filing for full details. If you are unsure of the process however, it’s always a good idea to seek professional assistance.
PRO TIP: In the 1099 assistant report, click the link in the upper-right of the report that says “showing all values”. By default, this report shows all payments, by clicking this link it will restrict the report to only payees whom you have paid $600 or more during a given year.
Adventure 2: I file my own 1099s.
Great news, if you aren’t already aware, you don’t have to re-enter that data any more or pay for another software application to file for you! Rentec Direct has full support for e-filing your 1099s. Did you know that when you manually file your 1099s, not only do you have to purchase special IRS forms, the IRS scans those documents, and the scanning process can and does have mistakes. Those mistakes are red-flag events and can cause you and your clients an IRS audit. Electronic filing is recommended by the IRS, and is free from scanning errors. Electronic filing is also faster, cheaper, and the IRS even gives you more time if you e-file. If you mail your 1099-MISC to the IRS, do so before February 28th. If filing electronically, you have until March 31st. Either way, provide the recipient their copy by January 31st.
To file electronically with Rentec Direct, head over to Settings, Utilities, and click “1099 e-File and Print”. You will be walked through verifying the TIDs and amounts for each of your vendors and/or owners and when done your information will be electronically transmitted to the IRS. We’ll even take care of mailing a copy to the recipient, and the state (where applicable). The cost for doing this is as low as $1.25 per form.
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Regardless which adventure you’ve chosen, it’s crucial that your data is accurate. Before submitting anything to your CPA or the IRS, review the 1099 Assistant report and make sure the numbers match your records and verify that all receipts and payments have been recorded for 2013.
