Real Estate Tax Mistakes That Cost You Thousands (with Tax Pro & Investor Deltrease Hart-Anderson)

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In this conversation, Deltrease Hart-Anderson shares her insights on tax strategies for real estate investors, common mistakes made in the industry, and her personal journey in real estate. She emphasizes the importance of proper record-keeping, timely tax planning, and seeking professional advice rather than relying on social media. Deltrease also discusses her own experiences with real estate investments and how they have shaped her approach to accounting and taxation.

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Deltrease Hart-Anderson (00:00)
Absolutely. So yeah, that is my mission, keeping the IRS out of the pocketbooks, wallets, and bank accounts of taxpayers. That’s just it. I feel that I solve tax problems. That’s just the long and short of it. So that mission is just the longer version of saying, I love solving tax problems. And I feel that people have tax problems two different ways, right? And especially us as real estate investors and business owners.

You have a tax problem, yes, if you’re getting those nasty grams from the IRS, if you haven’t filed your taxes in years, if you can’t afford to pay that tax bill that the IRS sends you, right? So that is a tax problem. But then another thing I feel that’s tax problem that people don’t often realize is even if you can afford to pay what the IRS is saying that you can pay year after year,

not trying to minimize your tax bill before you send that check to the IRS, then that’s a tax problem as well. You’re overpaying. that’s just my philosophy.

Kristen (02:46)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Deltrease, Hart Anderson, who is a real estate investor and also the owner of D. Hart Accounting. Their mission is to keep the IRS out of your pocketbooks, wallets and bank accounts so you can focus on building wealth. So we’re going to get into a lot of tax tips. We’re going to get into a lot of real estate investing as well. Thank you for being here Deltrease.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (03:08)
Thank you, Kristen.

Thank you for having me.

Kristen (03:11)
So let’s

start with DHART Accounting. Give us your background and kind of how you went into building this.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (03:18)
Okay, so I started off in corporate America. I have an accounting degree both bachelor’s and master’s. So I started off like any good accountant would, started off in Fortune 500 companies doing accounting and finance. So any accounting and finance department, I was in it. ⁓

All the while I was working, that was my full-time job, but I loved taxes, right? So I didn’t have the opportunity to go into taxes. At one point in time, I wanted to work for the IRS. Like I literally wanted to work for them when I was in college. ⁓ So I volunteered with them and I just fell in love with taxes, but my corporate experience obviously paid my bills. So I ended up going to, and I won’t call any names, with the largest ⁓ retail tax

company and I worked for them for about 10 years. So I started just doing tax prep and then I ended up teaching for them. I just loved it. And then at one point there was this man that came into our office and he said, I would love to be in business with you.

He said, I’ve seen you in here over the years and I just, want you to hang your shingle. I’m going to back you. You can put your name on the door and I just want us to be partners. And I thought about it and I was like, wow, he must see something in me. didn’t really see in myself, but I did know that I enjoy doing taxes and I enjoyed, you know, my time at this place. And I decided not to partner with him, but I decided to hang my own shingle. So that’s how I.

I got started.

Kristen (05:49)
That’s really exciting.

What did you love so much about taxes?

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (05:53)
Taxes

are more so accounting is pretty much a science if you will and taxes is taxes are really ⁓ More of a science than a lot of other facets of accounting if you will like

audit is really not scientific ⁓ Audits are objective, but taxation is truly that scientific part of accounting. So I like the science of it

Kristen (06:21)
That’s awesome. So you started D-Heart accounting. know, up top I said the mission. How do you guys kind of go about that? know, just talk about more about the culture of it.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (06:34)
Absolutely. So yeah, that is my mission, keeping the IRS out of the pocketbooks, wallets, and bank accounts of taxpayers. That’s just it. I feel that I solve tax problems. That’s just the long and short of it. So that mission is just the longer version of saying, I love solving tax problems. And I feel that people have tax problems two different ways, right? And especially us as real estate investors and business owners.

You have a tax problem, yes, if you’re getting those nasty grams from the IRS, if you haven’t filed your taxes in years, if you can’t afford to pay that tax bill that the IRS sends you, right? So that is a tax problem. But then another thing I feel that’s tax problem that people don’t often realize is even if you can afford to pay what the IRS is saying that you can pay year after year,

not trying to minimize your tax bill before you send that check to the IRS, then that’s a tax problem as well. You’re overpaying. that’s just my philosophy.

And how we go about it is it depends on which seesaw end you come in on, how we handle the tax issue. So I, as an IRS enrolled agent, I represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenues

service and in anyone with any of the 50 states, right?

So I do that by actually calling the IRS, getting on the phone with the IRS. Hey, IRS, I’m working with Mr. or Mrs. Taxpayer and I need for you to stop all collection activity while we figure out what’s going on. And then I go in to see what the IRS has on the taxpayer and I go to see what is my client side of the story versus the IRS’s side of the story. Marry those two pieces together.

and then come up with a solution. Not a solution that the IRS may find favorable for them all the time, but the solution that’s fair. And sometimes it is the IRS.

So I solve those pieces. make sure that whatever is being said on the IRS’s side, make sure they’re right. And if not, then it’s my job to prove to the IRS that the taxpayer is right. So that’s how I do that piece. Now, the other piece as far as helping taxpayers not pay and pay too much to the IRS, it’s just

Kristen (09:10)
Wow.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (09:22)
me and the taxpayer and we’re going through, we’re reviewing past year tax returns, we’re reviewing their current, I like to call it tax life. And then we’re combing through to see what deductions, what tax strategies we can implement, whether it’s for this year only, whether it’s for years to come. But we’re going through and looking at our clients’ tax lives to see where we can implement those tax strategies to cut the tax bills.

Kristen (09:52)
Amazing, and you have a really impressive investing portfolio as well. So you can kind of look at this holistically and you know

to look for.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (10:38)
Absolutely, and thank you for that. ⁓ It doesn’t always feel impressive to me. It’s still a work in progress. We’re still trying to build that portfolio. But thanks, just the same. ⁓

to just as I’m going very hard for my clients, because I am real estate investing, I have to do the same for me. So I have to strategize for both me, my husband. I have a business partner, so I have to look at not just what I’d like to do strategy-wise. Sometimes I can’t do anything because I have a business partner. So we both have to make the decisions. But what I’m doing, and I tell my clients all the time,

I’m working hard for you guys have to work hard for me too because I’m doing the research to minimize my tax bill as well

Kristen (11:30)
Definitely, and it is an impressive portfolio. ⁓ That’s

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (11:34)
Thank you.

Kristen (11:36)
When you work with real estate investors, are there things that you see over and over, like maybe mistakes people make or misconceptions that pertain specifically to that industry?

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (11:48)
you

Absolutely, so I call it my top five so the first thing and ⁓ I hope I I’m gonna write them down every time I say them So that I don’t repeat something but my first the first thing I see especially with us real estate investors and I say us because I’ve been even though I am D heart accounting you would think I always get it right and I don’t I haven’t all the time but I fixed that issue the first

that I see us as real estate investors making is not having good records, not having good books and records. I hate doing bookkeeping, so guess what? I myself, Dee Hart Accounting, actually had to go out and hire a bookkeeper. So that’s not keeping good records, not having those the books in order, that is mistake number one.

Kristen (12:36)
Right.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (12:47)
Mistake number two that I see, I would say waiting until tax time. Waiting until tax time to try to scramble to get those books and records done. Another thing that I see, people will wait and say, well. ⁓

What can I do to reduce my tax bill? Well, sometimes if you wait until April 15th or March 15th, it’s a bit too late. There should have been some strategies implemented prior to. I tell people now, especially if someone were to come to me in April and say, well, what can I do? That’s a conversation that we probably should have had at least the last quarter of 2025 if someone is coming to me in 2026.

So ⁓ I would say waiting until tax time to actually figure out what could they do how to save on the taxes? ⁓ Another mistake I see is incorrect reporting and when I say that a lot of times so especially if you have real estate investors that are doing rehabs ⁓ if they have just ⁓

Kristen (13:45)
Miss Orsians.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (14:03)
And so in my case, if you’ve just purchased some land and you’re about to start building, so there are a lot of carrying costs when you are rehabbing, when you are.

building new construction and I see lots of times people forget about those expenses and they’re not putting them on their tax returns. That’s costing them thousands of dollars not putting those carrying costs on the tax return. There’s a way to put those carrying costs on there and a lot of times especially with those that get hard money, those that have the construction loans that convert into permanent loans,

It’s just it’s a lot of money that you may be missing out on because you’re not remembering that you have those costs because sometimes those costs are not paid for through your LLC

so it’s outside out of mind and they never made your book so that’s ⁓ another thing that I see ⁓ The carrying costs and I’m just writing them so I don’t repeat myself

⁓ Number four, you were on, yeah we’re on number four. This is what I hate, hate, hate. People taking the advice straight from social media. And it’s like a social media sound bite.

Kristen (16:07)
Right.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (16:12)
So it’s like, hire your kids, take the bonus depreciation, take 100 % depreciation. And they’re listening to influencers or nameless, faceless brands or celebrities instead of actually going to professionals like IRS enrolled agents, like CPAs, like attorneys, just have someone or even a tax professional. They don’t necessarily have to have a license as I do to

at least provide a good tax return, right? So if they have a credential, just a P10, which is a professional taxpayer, tax professional ID number, then go to someone with at least a P10.

so that they can help you sort out what you’re hearing in social media and what applies to you. I had this client that was in tax trouble and he said, well, I…

did he he said he did a certain strategy which is a 1031 exchange you’re probably familiar with it I did the 1031 exchange and I’m like let me see the paperwork what who was your 1031 exchange company when did you identify the property when did you sell the property he said oh I didn’t use the company I just followed I I knew I knew the time that I sold it and then I bought another

and I’m like that’s not how it goes

And he said, well, on YouTube, that’s how they said it. That’s exactly how they did it. And those were the steps I took. like, it’s a sound bite. So just taking that advice off of social media, it’s just a little bit of advice. Sometimes social media will tell you, yes, take 100 % depreciation. And sometimes you can.

but maybe you shouldn’t. It all depends. So that’s what I’m saying. Taking advice from social media, you need the whole picture because sometimes these tax strategies, you may be able to implement them if you do it right. And sometimes they may not be beneficial to you within a particular tax year. So back to looking at your tax life to see if those strategies even apply to you or

if they’re beneficial for you to take. And then lastly, let’s see.

Kristen (18:46)
And also going off

of that, hear a lot of people, they’ll follow advice that they hear from their friends, which you don’t know really where the friend got the information either. And a lot of times they either get, you know, off of TikTok or maybe from an accountant that doesn’t really know what they’re talking about. Like, I hear that a lot where it’s like, well, my friend did this.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (19:09)
absolutely friends, the barbershop, ⁓ your cosmetologist, your barber, ⁓ your neighbor, absolutely friends. And I tell people, taxes are like snowflakes. So you and I could live right beside each other, Kristen. I could have 1.1 and 1.5 kids. You could have 1 1.5 kids. Our husbands could drive purple cars. We live in purple houses. They could work the same places. We could do the same type of real estate.

There’s gonna be something different about our tax lives. I don’t care what it is. There’s going to be something different about our tax lives and people don’t get it. So what applies to the friend, the neighbor, the barber, whomever may not apply to the other person. So absolutely. Yeah, so taking that advice. And then lastly, number five.

Kristen (20:00)
Yeah.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (20:07)
I would say ignoring IRS letters. That is huge. So you ignore the letter and I have people come, like I talk to taxpayers all across the country on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. That’s what I do. And a lot of times I had a…

person to reach out to me earlier this morning and they said, ⁓ I have this letter. I asked them what the letter number was and they told me, said, okay. I said, ⁓ did you receive the other letters like prior to? And they said, yes, I did. I just didn’t understand the letters at the time. So because they ignored the previous letters, which was about three letters before this one, three or four, now,

They’re up against levies. They’re up against liens, wage garnishments, more penalties because so much time has passed. So ignoring those letters is another biggie, if you will.

Kristen (21:11)
Totally.

Yeah, that was, I mean, that was an amazing list. I feel like that’s a very practical list to go off of that people probably learn a lot from. Well, thank you so much. You’ve given such

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (21:21)
Thank you.

Kristen (21:23)
advice for people that they can actually follow. To lightly touch just kind of on your real estate portfolio, tell us kind of how you got into real estate and how long you’ve been doing it.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (21:27)
Thanks.

Oh wow, so I think I started, well my owner occupied, my very first house I bought was my owner occupied house in 2000. So maybe in 2002, 2003 was when I got my first two properties. They were, I got,

them well you know what I can’t I can’t remember the year now but those first two properties I got I lost those properties because I had one of those loans that ⁓ ballooned at and I can’t remember the name of the loans but the arms the adjustable rate mortgages and those loans became due and I lost both of those properties so I vowed to myself I would never get back into real estate

and which wasn’t true. So I ended up going to an auction. ⁓

Me, it was me, my father and my grandfather, both of them have since passed. my father was taking my grandfather to a doctor’s appointment. And he just so happened to call, he said, well, where are you? And I was like, I’m at the courthouse, I’m at an auction. Because I just wanted to kind of see, even though I was mad. ⁓

and vowed not to bother with real estate anymore. I was just going to work on focusing on my house, paying it off, and that was it. But I still felt that I wanted real estate because I would always read and research and hear about, real estate is a great investment. ⁓ So I wanted to do real estate. So I was like, let me just try it again. And I went to the auction. My ⁓ dad and my grandfather came with me, and I won this property. So now here I am.

calling my husband. I can’t remember whether he was my boyfriend at the time, but however, I called him like, hey, I just won this property and now we need to find some money to fix it up. So ⁓ that was a very good, we still have that property to this very day.

Kristen (23:39)
Yeah.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (23:47)
⁓ So that kind of allowed me to ease back into real estate. My business partner and I, purchased a commercial property. We owned a daycare center together and we bought the operations. Then we bought the building itself. So that was a great, we have since sold both operations and building, but that building really was ⁓ great for us and allowed us to purchase more real estate, free and clear. ⁓

I just, yeah, it just started like, it started bad, but it ended up good. ⁓

Kristen (24:23)
That’s amazing. Yeah.

Well, I mean, you’ve definitely gone through the ebbs and flows of it. So you understand from that side, kind of what’s necessary in your, you know, your taxes from building to scaling. Well, this is awesome. Tell everyone where to find you and how to find DHart Accounting.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (24:38)
Thanks.

Okay, so I would tell everyone to go to dhartaccounting.com but to be perfectly honest that a Website is a hot mess. It needs re-damping. So ⁓ I if anyone wants to reach out to me they can go to www.callthetaxpro.com

c-a-l-l-t-a-g-t-a-x-p-r-o dot com. ⁓ And then if they have any tax issues where they need to stop IRS letters, they could go to stopIRSletters.com. So some people don’t have letters, so just reach out to call the tax pro.

Kristen (25:26)
Amazing, well thank you so much Deltrease. I think that you gave such great information for people.

Deltrease Hart-Anderson (25:32)
Thank you so much, Kristen, my pleasure. This was so fun.

Kristen (25:36)
Thank you everyone for listening. Hope you got a lot of good information for your business. You can kind of look at your books, make sure they’re up to Deltrease’s standards. And please reach out to her if you have any questions. But otherwise, we will see you back next time. Thanks so much. Bye.

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Investor Fuel

Real Estate Tax Mistakes That Cost You Thousands (with Tax Pro & Investor Deltrease Hart-Anderson)

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