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nice, i'll have to look into one of those.We've been demoing a bunch of battery equipment lately to make the hippies happy, specifically shindowa brand. If I had a yard your size that's what I would own. You could mow, edge/weedeat, and blow on 1 battery, their pretty awesome these days and super quiet.
Do you have to deal with HOA rules?
doneCan a mod change the title to "Nick's house build thread"? I'm going to keep posting here instead of starting a new thread.
thank you.done
Good to know. Right now I have a stack of about 20 receipts from Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, and a few other places.Friendly accounting advice.
Start a file now for home expenses. This file will be useful at some point in the future when you need to determine your actual cost basis in the home when you factor in all your "capital improvements".
The 250k exclusion (500k MFJ) may seem like a lot of gain to exclude now, but in 10, 20 or 30 years, that number will seem a whole lot smaller.
Tax returns that include basis valuations are now also open to a 6 year audit standard (vs 3 year statute of limitations) so you have double the exposure for time frame in which you may need to provide this documentation if your number is pulled for audit.
Repairs to a home cannot be expense'd on income taxes (excluding home office/home based business R&M) so we advise being pretty liberal about classifying what is a repair vs a "capital improvement".
I hired Ramon to paint the downstairs, stairwell, and one of the bathrooms. Cost $900. It was cash. I don't have a receipt. lolRemember sweat equity is not deductible in any way. So lets say you spend 10 hours taping and painting a room, and you earn $20 an hour, and $100 in supplies.
You have invested $300, of which you can only claim $100.
If you hired someone to paint the room and it costs $500, you could include that full $500 as a capital improvement and increase your basis.
Painting is a bad example because it doesn't necessarily qualify as a legitimate capital improvement but the idea is still the same.
Bottom line. Remember what your time is worth and the tax implications of sweat equity.
Don't miss out on life to save a few bucks, your time in priceless.
(That being said, I also do all my own home improvements and repairs so I am in no position to talk.)
Next time make the check out for cash, with the memo stating the work, and then just cash it yourself to pay the worker. Helps your papertrail.