Your plan is built. This is how we implement it together, keep your real estate strategies documented, and make sure the deductions actually land.
Confidential · Anomaly Concierge Tax clients only
This guide, the strategies it describes, and the procedures and documents that go with it are the proprietary work product of Anomaly CPA, prepared for you as a Concierge Tax client. It is provided for your use and the use of your own advisors, and is not to be forwarded, posted, or shared outside that circle.
Please do not share it in investor groups, mastermind or community forums, or with anyone building a similar plan without us. A summary passed along without the analysis behind it tends to get implemented badly, which is a problem for the person who received it and, eventually, for the standing of the approach itself.
© 2026 Anomaly CPA. All rights reserved. Nothing here is a guarantee of a tax outcome, and it is not legal advice.
01
Your plan is done. Now what.
You have a tax plan. In real estate, a plan only saves money once the strategies are implemented and documented as the year happens. That is what this guide is for.
01
Stand up each strategy correctly the first time.
02
Keep the records that make the deductions hold, especially your hours.
03
Stay on a simple quarterly and annual rhythm.
Core idea
You do not calculate anything. You send us the raw details as they happen. We handle the math, the studies, the documents, and the entries.
The whole engagement
Three phases, then it repeats
01
Tax Assessment
& Advisory
Complete
Before this guide
Portfolio reviewed
Strategies quantified
Plan delivered
02
Implementation
You are here
First 90 days
Tracker goes live
Entities and hours log
Cost seg ordered
03
The running cycle
Ongoing
Every year after
Quarterly estimates
Strategy meetings
Return verified vs plan
↻ Phase 03 loops back into a refreshed plan every year, and every acquisition re-enters at phase 02.
Running underneath all three, from day one
Your live tracker
Open it any time to see progress and open items.
Your team, by email
A reply within one business day. Deals get same-day attention.
Knowledge base
Plain answers on deadlines, documents, and how each strategy works.
Income tax notices
Covered for the years we prepared. See section 06.
02
Meet your team, and how to reach us
You are not emailing a general inbox. These are the Tax Project Managers on our team. One of them is assigned to you and will introduce themselves directly. Open any card for a short introduction.
Who to email about what
Email is the main channel, because it puts your question on the record and gets it to the right person. Reply on the existing thread when there is one.
Status, deadlines, documents
Your Tax Project Manager. They own your tracker and know where everything stands.
A strategy question or a decision
Your Tax Project Manager. Ask for a call if it is a real decision rather than a quick question.
A deal in motion
A purchase, a sale, a refinance, or a property you are about to list. Tell us early. The tax options narrow fast once documents are signed.
Books, close, transactions
Your accounting team, where bookkeeping is in your engagement.
An IRS or state notice
Forward it the day you get it. Do not reply to it yourself. Deadlines on notices are short.
What to expect on response time
Same day
Anything time-sensitive: a notice, a closing, a 1031 clock. Flag it in the subject line and we treat it that way.
1 business day
Everything else gets a reply, even when the reply is "on it, you will have the answer by Thursday."
Anytime
Want a faster read on something complicated? Ask for a call. We would rather spend fifteen minutes on the phone than trade six emails.
Nudge us any time. If something feels like it is taking longer than you expected, say so on the thread or email your Tax Project Manager directly. You will never be a bother, and we would always rather hear it from you early.
03
What you receive from us
Your engagement produces a specific set of documents. Know what each one is, so you always know which to open.
Your Tax Strategy Plan. The strategies we selected for your portfolio and the projected savings behind each one. This is the why.
Your Custom Implementation Guide. The plan translated into your own to-do list, strategy by strategy and property by property: what gets stood up, in what order, what we need from you, and what done looks like. This is the working document. If you only keep one, keep this one.
Your entity chart. How the portfolio is held today, and how it will be held once the plan is in place. Which entity owns what, and which account pays what.
Your tax escrow schedule. What to set aside and pay each quarter, with the federal and state vouchers.
Your hours log format. The Anomaly Material Participation Tracker, ready to use, downloadable in section 11.
Your implementation tracker. The live link. Progress, owners, and open items, updated as we go.
Your cost segregation studies and strategy documents. Completed studies per property, plus the accountable plan policy and Augusta agreement where you have an active entity.
This guide. How the whole thing runs.
These get refreshed as the portfolio grows. Ask us for the current version rather than working from a PDF you downloaded last year. We will resend any of them, any time, no explanation needed.
04
You will see every step
You are not going to wonder whether things are getting done. We build you a live implementation tracker and send you the link. It lists every item in your plan, who owns it, and where it stands, updated as we go.
Green means done. Anything waiting on you is flagged clearly, with what we need and by when.
We drive it. Most items are ours, and we chase the ones that are yours so nothing slips.
You never have to remember what is next. If something needs you, you will hear from us with one clear ask.
The most common worry after a tax plan is "will this actually get implemented, or did I just buy a PDF." The tracker is our answer. Open it any time and see exactly what is done and what is left. Nothing falls through the cracks, because one person on our team owns it end to end.
05
What we handle, what stays yours
We handle
- The calculations and the cost segregation studies
- The depreciation and the passive loss tracking
- The documents
- The bookkeeping entries, where we keep your books
- The deadlines and the reminders
You handle
- Decisions
- Keeping your hours log
- Sending us the raw inputs on time
- A heads-up before you buy, sell, refinance, or list a property
Your entities. If your properties sit in LLCs or under a holding company, each entity keeps its own bank account and its own records. We tell you exactly which account pays what.
How you are taxed. Most rental income flows onto your personal return through your LLCs. If you have an S-corp management or operating entity, wages there run through payroll; we advise the salary and the timing.
06
What is not included
Being clear about the edges is part of doing this well. None of the below is a gap in your plan. They are simply other people's work, and we will tell you when you need them.
We do not form entities or draft legal documents. Your attorney does. We tell them exactly what the plan requires and we review the tax terms.
We are not the qualified intermediary on a 1031. That has to be an independent party, engaged before you close. We tell you when to engage one and we coordinate the timeline.
We do not manage properties or run payroll. Your property manager and Gusto do. Where you have an S-corp entity we set the salary, the timing, and the treatment.
We do not underwrite deals or value property. We model the tax consequence of a deal you are considering, which is often the part that decides it. For retirement plans and investing we work with Apex Investment Group, our partner firm. See section 18.
Notice support has limits worth knowing. We handle income tax notices for the years Anomaly prepared the return. Notices on a year prepared by someone else, and payroll, sales tax, and property tax notices of any kind, are outside it. Send those to us anyway and we will tell you what we can do and what it would involve. If a matter escalates to a full examination, we scope that with you before any work starts.
Want something outside the plan? Ask. If it is a quick answer it is a quick answer. If it is a new piece of work we will tell you what it involves before we start, never after.
07
How we work together
Anomaly commits to
- Replying to your emails within one business day
- A check-in through your first 120 days so setup does not drift
- Prompting you ahead of every deadline
- Telling you plainly what we handle and what you handle
- Keeping your books on cadence where that is in your engagement
We need from you
- Documents and numbers within five business days
- A decision when we ask, or a date you will have it
- A heads-up before you buy, sell, finance, or list a property
- Your hours log kept as you go
- A reply even when the answer is "not yet"
First 120 days
Setup is where things get stuck, so we check in by email across your first 120 days. No meeting to schedule. Reply to the email and you have done your part.
08
Your first 90 days
Days 1–14
Implementation Meeting. We confirm which strategies apply, build your tracker, and send you the first, short list of inputs, including how to keep your hours log.
Days 15–45
Setup. Entity and account confirmation, any cost seg studies ordered, your hours log started, accountable plan policy if you have an active entity.
Days 45–90
First full cycle. First estimate scheduled, first studies underway, cadence set. You settle into the rhythm.
Throughout: a short email check-in so setup does not drift. You will always know what is next and when it is due.
09
Getting set up
Work through these once, in order. We do most of this with you.
01
Confirm your entities and ownership are set the way the plan calls for: property LLCs, and a holding company if your plan uses one.
02
Open a separate bank account for every entity, in that entity's exact legal name. Never mix personal and property money.
03
Start your material participation hours log now, before you need it. Download our tracker in section 11, or use your own as long as it captures the same columns.
04
If your plan includes cost segregation on a property, we order the study. Send us the closing statement and the purchase details.
05
If you have an S-corp management or operating entity, set up payroll before you take any wages.
06
Start one folder for records: closing statements, entity documents, leases, hours logs, studies, invoices. Add to it as you go.
10
Your strategies: what we need
Read this before the list
This is a reference for the strategies we most often implement, written so you know what each one asks of you. It is not your list. Your list lives in two places, and those two always win:
Your Tax Strategy Plan names every strategy we selected for your portfolio and what each is worth.
Your implementation tracker shows each of those as a live item with an owner and a status.
Some strategies here will not apply to you. Some things in your plan are specific to your portfolio and are not described here at all. If a strategy is in your plan, it is in your tracker. If you ever cannot find one, that is a question worth asking, not a reason to worry: email us and we will show you where it sits.
We walk through which of these apply to you at your Implementation Meeting, then send the documents. Nothing below is something you set up on your own.
The one that matters most
Material participation hours. If we are treating any rental loss as active (real estate professional status or a short-term rental), you must keep a contemporaneous log of your hours by property and activity. This log is the single most important thing you keep. Send it quarterly. Without it, the deduction does not survive a look.
Short-term rentals. Track the average guest stay and the total rented days per property. The day counts decide the tax treatment, so they have to be right.
Cost segregation. When we recommend a study on a property, we run it. Send the closing statement, purchase price, placed-in-service date, and any improvement detail.
1031 exchange. If you are thinking about selling a property, tell us before you list it. The clock and the qualified intermediary have to be set up first, not after.
Passive losses. We track your suspended losses year to year so they get used, not stranded.
Home office and accountable plan (if you run your real estate through an active entity). We send the policy; email us the business expenses you paid personally and we handle the reimbursement.
Augusta rule (if you have an active entity). We send the rental agreement and minutes template. Hold the meeting, email us the details, we handle the fair rental value and the recording.
Retirement plans. A solo 401(k), a company plan, or a cash balance plan can move real money off the top, and the contribution math interacts with your rental losses. Ask us before you open anything and we will bring in Apex Investment Group. See section 18.
Quarterly estimates. We calculate what to pay and when, and send the vouchers.
11
Sending in your hours, meetings, and expenses
You do not calculate anything. Email the raw details as they happen; we handle the math, the studies, and the entries.
Use our tracker
Anomaly Material Participation Tracker
An Excel workbook set up the way we want your hours recorded, so you are never guessing at the format and we are never reformatting it later. Two tabs: How to use, which covers what counts and what does not, and Time Log, which totals your hours as you go. Add a line the day the work happens, send it to us each quarter.
Date Property Hours Activity Notes
↓ Download the tracker
Prefer your own spreadsheet, a time app, or a calendar you already live in? That is fine. Use whatever you will actually keep up with, as long as it captures those five columns and you record it as the work happens rather than from memory later. Ask us to review your first quarter and we will tell you if it is holding up.
What a good entry looks like
Property / activity, date, hours, what you did
Maple St, Sept 3, 4.0, met contractor, walked repair scope
Maple St, Sept 9, 2.5, screened tenant applications
Portfolio, Sept 14, 1.5, reviewed financials with bookkeeper
Augusta, example email (active entity only)
Subject: Augusta, quarterly planning meeting, Sept 9
Date: September 9
Location: my home
Who attended: me, my spouse, my property manager
What we covered: Q4 budget, refinance on the Maple St property
Length: about 3 hours
Agenda/notes attached.
Send these as they happen. Reconstructing a year of hours and meetings each spring is how deductions get lost.
Anything sensitive goes through the secure link we send, not as a plain email attachment. That means Social Security numbers, bank statements, closing documents, and any full tax return. A plain email is fine for the hours log and the summaries above.
12
Setting the money aside
A good plan lowers the bill. It does not remove it, and in real estate the year a property sells can look very different from the year before it. The investors who never feel tax stress fund it as the money comes in.
01
Keep a separate savings account for tax, outside any property operating account.
02
Move your set-aside across on a schedule, and again out of any distribution or refinance proceeds. We tell you the amount. It comes off your escrow schedule, not a rule of thumb.
03
Pay the quarterly estimate out of that account when we send the voucher. Nothing else comes out of it.
04
A sale changes the number immediately. Tell us as soon as one is under agreement so we can re-run the estimate rather than surprise you in April.
One click, then stop thinking about it
Put your payment dates in your calendar
Adds your next six quarterly payment dates, each with a reminder. Apple Calendar and Outlook users, use the button. Google Calendar users, use the date links below. Every date lands five days before the IRS deadline, so there is time to move money and ask us anything before it is due. Works with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook.
↓ Download calendar file
Using Google Calendar? Tap each date instead
The button above downloads a calendar file, which Apple Calendar and Outlook open directly. Google Calendar does not open those files from a browser, so these links add each date straight to your Google calendar instead. Either way, we send you the exact amount and the voucher in advance, so when the reminder appears you already know what to pay.
Why we care about the estimates specifically. Paying the safe harbor amount on time protects you from underpayment penalties even in a year where income spikes. It is the cheapest protection in tax, and it only works if the payment is actually made by the date.
13
Quarterly checklist
Make your estimated tax payment. We send the amount and the vouchers.
Send your material participation hours log and any new short-term-rental day counts.
Send any Augusta meeting details, if you have an active entity.
Send a heads-up on any purchase, sale, refinance, or property you are about to list.
Confirm each entity paid its own expenses from its own account.
14
Annual checklist
Confirm your material participation position for the year and that the hours log is complete.
Review whether your entity and ownership map still fits the portfolio as it grows.
Refresh the passive loss carryforward picture so losses are used, not stranded.
Refresh the strategy list for the new year.
Confirm last year's strategies actually landed on the return.
15
Your year at a glance
Each quarter
Estimated tax payments, hours log, short-term-rental day counts, Augusta if you have an active entity.
Early year
Strategy refresh, entity and ownership review, cost seg planning for the year's acquisitions.
Spring
Returns prepared and filed or extended. Your property K-1s and Schedule E feed your personal return.
1 to 2x/yr
Strategy meeting with the Anomaly team. Review the portfolio and the next moves.
Exact dates shift with weekends, holidays, and your filing situation. We confirm each one with you.
16
Your tax return preparation process
Filing season is the part clients brace for. It should be the least eventful thing we do together, because the work that matters already happened during the year. Here is exactly how it goes.
JANUARY
The questionnaire goes out. Nobody enjoys it. We do not enjoy sending it. But the government requires us to ask certain questions in writing, including a few that will feel oddly specific about foreign accounts and digital assets, so we ask them. Most of it is a five minute confirmation that nothing changed. Answer it once and you are done.
FEB / MAR
We tell you the deadline to get us your documents. If everything is in by then, we file on the original due date. If life is busy, we extend, and that is a completely normal outcome rather than a failure.
AS WE GO
We reach out with open items and questions. Expect a short list, not a scavenger hunt, and expect it to be specific. If we ask something twice it is because the answer changes the return.
THROUGHOUT
Your Tax Project Manager keeps you updated. You will know where your return stands without asking. Nothing to chase, nothing to worry about.
About extensions, because they get a bad reputation
Most of our clients extend, and most high net worth taxpayers do. It is the norm at this level, not a warning sign. An extension is a planned choice that buys time to file a complete, accurate return rather than a rushed one, and a return filed accurately later in the year draws fewer questions than a return amended twice in April.
Cost segregation studies, closing statements, and K-1s from syndications and funds all arrive on their own schedule, and rarely on ours. Extending gives those documents time to land so your return is right the first time.
The one thing to know: an extension extends the time to file, not the time to pay. We calculate what to send with the extension so you stay penalty-free. You will have that number from us in advance.
In short
You answer the questionnaire, send what we ask for, and reply when we have a question. We handle the rest and we will tell you where things stand. There is no version of this where you are left guessing in April.
17
Tell us when this happens
Loop us in before you act. A quick call now prevents an expensive fix later.
You are buying or selling a property.
You are about to list a property for sale. Tell us before you list, so a 1031 stays on the table.
You place a new property in service, or convert one to a short-term rental.
You take on financing or refinancing.
You get into a syndication, fund, or partnership and will receive a K-1.
A large liquidity event, windfall, or big change in income.
You move states, or buy in a new state.
A family change: marriage, divorce, a birth, a death.
You want to change who owns any part of the portfolio.
Get an IRS or state notice? Do not respond on your own. Forward it to us the day it arrives. Income tax notices for years we prepared are covered; other notices we will still look at and tell you the options. See section 06.
18
Working with your other advisors
You likely have an attorney, a lender, a property manager, a wealth manager, and on a sale a qualified intermediary and a broker. The plans that work are the ones where those people and we are looking at the same picture.
Introduce us, and tell us we can speak with them directly. Every round trip through you costs a week. On a deal with a clock, a week is the whole thing.
Bring us in with your broker before a listing, not after an offer. That is the window where a 1031 is still available to you.
Send us the documents they produce. Closing statements, operating agreements, loan documents, syndication subscription documents, trust documents. They change the tax answer more often than you would expect.
We are not selling you a product. Our recommendation is about the tax result and nothing else. When something is genuinely outside our lane, we will say so and point you to the right person.
Our investment and retirement partner
Apex Investment Group
Retirement plans are where tax planning and investing meet, and the two decisions cannot be made separately without leaving money on the table. We work directly with Apex Investment Group so the plan design, the contribution math, and the tax result are set together rather than after the fact.
Ask us for an introduction on any of these
Solo 401(k) and company 401(k) plans
Defined benefit and cash balance plans
Business and personal retirement strategy
Personal investing and financial strategy
Email us before you open a plan or move an account. We will make the introduction and stay in the conversation, so what gets implemented matches what your tax plan assumed. This matters especially where retirement contributions interact with your rental losses and your passive position. If you already have an advisor you are happy with, keep them and introduce us instead. The point is that the two sides talk.
apexinvest.org →
19
What keeps a deduction, what loses it
Every strategy in your plan has to survive a second look. In real estate the difference is almost always the records you kept while it happened.
Keeps it
- A contemporaneous hours log when any rental loss is treated as active.
- Correct short-term-rental day counts.
- Each entity paying its own expenses from its own account.
- Cost seg backed by a real study.
- Documentation created as it happens.
Loses it
- Reconstructing a year of hours the following spring.
- Claiming an active real estate loss with no log to back it.
- Running one property's expenses through another entity or a personal card.
- Mixing personal and property money.
20
Getting help
Our knowledge base has plain answers to the questions that come up most: deadlines, documents, how a strategy works, what to send us.
Can't find it there? Email your Anomaly team. No question is too small. Asking first is always cheaper than fixing after.
21
Glossary
Material participation
The hours test that decides whether a rental loss is active (usable now) or passive (parked). Your hours log is the proof.
Real estate professional
A status that, when you qualify and materially participate, lets rental losses offset your other income.
Short-term rental
A rental with a short average guest stay, which can be treated as active without REPS when you materially participate.
Cost segregation
An engineering study that accelerates depreciation on a property, pulling deductions forward.
1031 exchange
Rolling the gain from selling one investment property into another, deferring the tax, on a strict timeline.
Passive loss
A loss that cannot be used this year and carries forward until you have passive income or a qualifying event.
Depreciation
The yearly deduction for the wear on a building and its components. Cost seg speeds it up.
Accountable plan
A written policy that lets an active entity reimburse you for legitimate business expenses tax-free, with proper backup.
Augusta rule
Rent your home to your active business up to 14 days a year without reporting the rental income, when properly documented.
K-1
The form that reports your share of a partnership's or S-corp's income. It feeds your personal return.
Estimated taxes
Quarterly prepayments toward the tax you will owe, so you are not short at filing.
Safe harbor
Paying enough in estimates to avoid an underpayment penalty even if you owe more at filing.