Hall CPA PLLC

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Hall CPA PLLC Real Estate CPAs and advisors helping clients reduce taxes and streamline real estate ventures.

The Real Estate CPA™ is owned by Hall CPA PLLC and was created to better identify with and service real estate investors and business owners. We only take on clients that are in the real estate industry which gives us an edge on the competition. With The Real Estate CPA™, you will receive financial, accounting, and tax expertise to enrich your real estate portfolio and business.

10/23/2026

Two investors sell the exact same property for the exact same profit.

One pays capital gains rates.

The other gets crushed at ordinary income rates.

That difference is worth six figures.

Why? IRC §1231.

It is a powerful tool, but it has traps:

-Depreciation recapture pulls gains back into ordinary income.

-The 5-year lookback rule can wipe out expected capital gains treatment if you had prior §1231 losses.

-Flipping treats your property as inventory taxed at ordinary rates.

Tax planning after a sale is useless.

If you are considering selling in the next 12 to 24 months, especially after cost segregation or bonus depreciation, you need to model your exposure before hitting the market.

⚡ Fill out the form in the comments to get started.

10/22/2026

Most real estate investors think they understand losses.

They don’t.

A paper loss doesn’t automatically lower your taxes.

Under Section 469, most rental losses are passive.

That means they can’t offset your W-2 or active business income.

They get trapped on Form 8582 and carried forward.

There are three main ways around that:

1. The short-term rental loophole (average stay of 7 days or less, plus material participation)

2. Real estate professional status (750+ hours, more than half your working time)

3. The $25K allowance (phases out completely at $150K of income)

And when you sell, suspended losses can be released against ordinary income.

The planning is what matters.

If you’re holding properties with losses or thinking about selling, let’s talk.

⚡Link in the comments.

10/22/2026

The smartest investors use AI to find the deals and their market knowledge to pick the right one.

On this episode of the Major League Real Estate Podcast, Nate and Tom sit down with Deb Smith, co-founder and CEO of CenterCap Group, a real estate investment bank that has worked on more than $100 billion in deals.

Deb shares her path from a dairy farm in rural Australia to Morgan Stanley, and how she launched a boutique bank in the middle of the 2009 financial crisis. She also explains why office, retail, industrial, and multifamily no longer describe the market, and which niches are taking their place.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

10/21/2026

If you put your rentals in an S-Corp, you made the wrong choice.

It feels like a better structure.

More protection.

More tax benefit.

It’s usually the opposite.

Here’s where it bites:

1. Putting property IN
Appreciated property can trigger a capital gain. Debt can create a surprise taxable gain. You didn’t avoid tax. You just moved the problem up front.

2. Taking property OUT
Distributions from an S-Corp are taxed as ordinary income, and you don’t get a clean exit. A regular LLC is a different story: property usually goes in and out tax-free.

3. Estate planning
When you die, your heirs get a step-up on the S-Corp stock, not on the property. The built-in gain is still sitting there.

Rental real estate generally doesn’t belong in an S-Corp.

If someone recommended one, get a second opinion before you sign anything.

⚡Request a discovery call at the link in the comments.

10/20/2026

Most operators are missing $80,000 in write-offs.

If you’re replacing roofs, HVAC, electrical, elevators, or facades, you may be depreciating components that are already gone.

Here’s the fix.

Under Treas. Reg. § 1.168(i)-8, when you remove a component and replace it, you can deduct its remaining basis in that same year.

Example:
Original roof: $100,000
Depreciation taken: $20,000
Remaining basis: $80,000

Roof replaced in 2026? You can deduct the $80,000 in 2026.

Most CPAs track “Building.”

They don’t track components, so no partial disposition analysis ever happens.

And if you miss the election on a timely filed return, you’re stuck with Form 3115.

Quick gut check: When you replaced your last major system, did you write off the old one?

⚡ Request a free consultation at the link in the comments.

10/20/2026

Too busy for REPS?

Oil & gas working interests can create losses that Section 469 doesn’t treat as passive.

In this Tax Smart REI podcast episode, Tom and Nate walk through the year-end tax playbook for real estate investors, including REPS, the STR loophole, cost segregation, and 100% bonus depreciation.

They also cover exit strategies like 1031s and “Buy, Borrow, Die,” plus business strategies like S-Corps, the Augusta rule, and oil and gas working interests.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

10/19/2026

Is the STR loophole still relevant?

Yes.

But not in the way TikTok makes it sound.

And the reason TikTok STR people are getting wrecked isn't “the loophole died.”

It's the IRS.

When the IRS looks at these returns, they're not impressed by a reel.

They're looking for math + logs + documentation.

Most “tax finfluencers” skip that part...

because it doesn't get views...

They’re victims of the IRS. It wants math, logs, and documentation.

Where these strategies blow up:

1. The average stay drifts past 7 days. Occupancy gets padded with 14-30 day bookings.

2. “Material participation” with no proof. “I managed it” doesn’t hold up in an audit.

3. The wrong hours get counted. Cleaner hours aren’t your hours.

4. Hotel-style services change the income. That can bring in self-employment tax.

5. Cost seg run without discipline. Wrong placed-in-service timing. No documentation. That’s an audit magnet.

What works: an average stay of 7 days or less, a material participation test you can defend, and depreciation that matches reality.

If you can’t answer these cleanly, don’t buy it for the write-off.

-What’s my realistic average stay?

-Who is doing the work?

-Do I have an hours log?

-Am I limiting personal use?

-When will it be rent-ready?

⚡ Fill out the form at the link in the comments to get started.

10/16/2026

So many investors miss this.

Not because it’s complicated.

Because no one brings it up.

If you’ve owned a property for a few years and never run a cost seg study...

You likely under-depreciated it.

That means you paid more tax than you needed to.

The fix is straightforward.

No amendments. No mess.

You file Form 3115.

Say you own a $2.5M property.

Standard depreciation is about $60K a year.

A study finds ~$600K eligible for shorter lives.

That’s ~$300K+ in missed depreciation.

Taken all in one year.

Most firms won’t flag this.

They’re filing returns, not looking backward.

We can tell you quickly if it’s worth doing.

If it’s not, we’ll say that too.

⚡ Fill out the form at the link in the comments to get started.

10/15/2026

You think you’re managing your investments, but if you aren’t measuring them, you’re guessing.

Neal Bawa, a former tech founder who has invested in apartments since 2013, joins Nate and Tom to talk about using data to make real estate decisions. He explains where he sees multifamily rents heading over the next two years. Neal also covers why he thinks most people who call themselves data-driven aren’t, why he’s buying retiring CPA firms, and what AI means for the accounting profession.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

10/15/2026

We just passed 9/15, and today is 10/15...

If one of the only times you hear from your accountant is around these deadlines, that’s a problem.

Most real estate investors and business owners think they’re paying too much in taxes because they need a better accountant.

They’re half right.

The real problem is they don’t have a plan.

They have a preparer.

A preparer looks backward.

They take last year’s numbers, drop them into the software, and report what already happened.

By the time they touch your return, the year is closed, and every meaningful decision is behind you.

A planner looks forward.

They map out how you buy, hold, document, and sell before December 31, while those decisions still count.

Same profession.

Different outcome.

We see the cost of that gap all the time.

The STR investor who ran a cost segregation study but never documented material participation, which invites an audit.

The business owner whose accountant put their rentals in an S-Corp, which invites bad taxable events.

The high earner who sold a property, got hit with depreciation recapture, and never had the conversation of how to exit for tax.

None of these were bad taxpayers.

They just didn’t have anyone thinking ahead for them.

The taxpayers who keep the most money aren’t the ones with the most aggressive strategies.

They’re the ones who planned early, documented well, and worked with a team that knows real estate.

If your current relationship is “send us your documents in February, sign in April”...

The year is closing on decisions you can’t get back.

Q4 is when our calendar fills up fastest.

⚡ If you want to secure your spot before year-end, fill out the form in the comments to get started.

Address

Washington D.C., DC

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+12024558584

Website

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