Staking Crypto: How Are Rewards Taxed?

In this episode of Tax Tuesday, Anderson Advisors attorneys Clint Coon, Esq., and Eliot Thomas, Esq., discuss essential tax strategies for business owners and investors. Topics covered include late S election strategies, the best approach for payroll and officer compensation, and the benefits of Solo 401(k) plans over Roth IRAs. You’ll hear about how to tackle tax implications for cryptocurrency staking, offshore trusts, and real estate professional status. Additional insights include structuring holding companies for real estate investments, deducting rental expenses, and handling business losses. Tune in for expert advice on navigating complex tax decisions.  

Send your tax questions to taxtuesday@andersonadvisors.com.

Highlights/Topics: 

• "I'm considering a late S election effective January 1st of 2024." Okay, so we're going back in time here for an LLC. "I understand it's late in the year to get everything in order. I've heard others recommend an option to avoid payroll for 2024 by issuing a 1099 miscellaneous as officer compensation in lieu of a late payroll, then get payroll set for 2025. Would you suggest this 1099 approach, or is there still time to get payroll done for all of 2024?" - We don't advise this here at Anderson. We want you to roll the proper W-2 payroll. Yes, there's plenty of time.
• “What type of businesses do I need to set up a Solo 401(k) or Roth IRA?” - Look at the Solo 401(k) and use the Roth component built into the Solo 401(k) versus doing a Roth IRA because it gives you a little more flexibility in the control of those funds.
• "Can you review the contribution rules for a Solo 401(k) and for an IRA in 2024? For instance, when you defer income at year end and make a company match, then also the IRA contribution if possible?” - You can contribute up to $23,000 as the employee, and then the employer can contribute up to 25% of your earned wages
• "I invested in a cryptocurrency a few years ago. I have been staking it directly on the network, and in return, I receive a staking reward. How is the crypto activity taxed?" - The staking is usually considered ordinary income. That means it's going to be taxed at ordinary rates and very likely is subject to employment taxes.
• “I've been considering opening an offshore trust that owns an offshore LLC that engages in forex day trading business in the Cayman Islands. I only pay taxes on distributions received from the trust that way, I can grow capital outside the US. Am I on the right path here? And are there other consequences that I should consider?” - The way the US taxes individuals is that when we say worldwide income, it's not the income you earn in your own name. It's also the income that you earn through entities that you hold an interest in.
• "I have a real estate professional status." (We call it REP status for short.) "I have invested in both traditional, rentals, and syndications, both use cost segregation and bonus depreciation. Can I claim the paper loss from real estate syndications together with our other rental activity after electing to aggregate all real estate activity? Is it allowed to claim all losses, or the ones from syndications disallowed?" - You have to work over 750 hours in a real estate trade or business that you ‘materially participate’ in. That could be I sell houses, real estate agent, things like that. I manage houses, anything like that, and that has to be over 50% of your work week. Typically, it's difficult to do if you have a W-2 job. 
• "I own three separate holding companies, LLC taxed as a partnership for my real estate." We'd always recommend that, some oil, and mineral rights. "A second taxed as a partnership for active real estate flips." We might have an issue with that. "S-corporation for technology consulting." "I saw Anderson videos on holding a passive brokerage account, not active trading, in an LLC for asset protection. Where do you recommend I'd place this? Would it go into one of these other LLCs or some other holding company? I would prefer to avoid an extra annual federal tax filing if possible." - I would keep it completely separate because you've got this one set up for the oil, this one set up for the real estate, this one here is our active business. Putting your brokerage, your savings account into any of those entities just wouldn't make sense to me.
• "I have a primary residence that I plan to rent after one year, which would be in December. If I put it into service this year, can I deduct expenses that were needed to make it ready for that rental, such as a cost seg for this year?” - It’s a question of when it is placed into service. If we've already placed it in the services and we start, depending on what we're doing to improve on it, if it is just an improvement, that's still just going to go to basis, and we would depreciate it now that it's a rental.
• “Clint recommends using a partnership holding company for residential real estate investment. "Do I need to start a new IRS filing submission with a partnership holding company or keep it on my existing Schedule E, personal IRS filing? I have 25 investment homes, so I'd like to minimize the amount of work for this change. I'm not sure how to do this accounting change." - You can write out 25 little boxes down here that all lead up to just one entity, Wyoming holding. We'll make them do all 25.
• "I have a relatively new corporation whose expenses exceed income," so we've got losses. "Can these expenses be used to offset income in 2025? If so, how would I indicate this on this year's tax return?" - If we have more expenses than income, it's a loss, it can carry forward into the next year.

Resources:

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