Here is a tip for those of you that have to use 1099s. Most of you probably know this, but it may be helpful for people like me that didnt.

So my tax preparer firm calls me on the phone and says "hey...do you want us to prepare your 1099s? they cost 150 each and We know you at least have to give us one because your taxes were over 600 last year." So now I know my taxes are going up by at least 150 since they will have to do a 1099.

So I was non-commital and told them I would look to see how many people I paid over 600 last year.

So I called my preparer back, and mentioned the amount of people that I paid greater than 600 to last year and the next question was "how many did you pay with credit card? If you pay by credit card you dont need to give them a 1099. You only need to give them a 1099 if you pay by cash or check."

Well , lucky me, I paid all of them to include my tax preparer by CC. So they will not be getting the 150 fee from me to give themselves a 1099 on my behalf.

I would strongly recommend getting a Credit Card that is only used for your rentals. Pay everything with it to include taxes, insurance, repairs, all of it. Pay it off every month to avoid interest, but even if their is interest paid on it, that can be written off as well. Put any cc interest in the "Other Interest" column on the Schedule E, as long as the card is only used for business expenses.