Investment Property Loss.....should I worry about an audit?

This year, my family moved from Michigan to San Diego. We knew, when taking the new job, that we'd have a tough time selling the house. We'll we failed and in November, to avoid continuing to have to shell out all the mortgage and those heavy Michigan winter heating bills, we turned it into a rental. We still lose $300 per month but it's better than losing all the mortgage. So this year I will only post $2,365 loss mostly due to cost to get it in service, but this will likely be a loss of at least $4K until I can pay off the mortgage, or refinance. What should I do? I don't care about the loss due to my high salary in San Diego, but I don't want the loss + an audit. Should I take the loss, but not put it as a loss against my salary? I read a little about this 'passive loss rule', but I hardly understand all the consequences. I don't have any other passive income to write it off against? Should I start some other passive income to write off this loss against? Thoughts would be great.

You dont have to worry about passive loss rules. Rental real estate has a special rule. As long as you actively participate (bona fide managerial decisions) you can claim up to a 25K loss. If you are not using a agent to rent your property, you set the rates, chose the tenants, make decisions about repairs, you would qualify most likely.

However, there is a phase out for losses you must watch. For every dollar you modified adjusted gross income exceeds $100K (married filing joint) your 25K max loss is reduced by 50 cents(phase out at $150K). For example if your modified adjusted gross income was 145,000, and you rental loss was $10K, you would only be entitled to claim $2500. $150K-145K/2=$2500.


If you have receipts to back up your loss why worry about an audit?

Hope this helps as it can be complex.