Set aside per closing, not per quarter
Commission income doesn't arrive on a schedule. Your tax reserve shouldn't pretend it does.
Commission income arrives in lumps with nothing withheld, after your split, after your desk fee, after your lead spend. Agents who plan for that keep more of every close.
Get started — from $19/mo No credit card required · Cancel anytimeBy the time a check reaches you, the brokerage split is gone. Then desk fees, MLS dues, E&O premiums, lead-gen spend, and marketing. What's left is what gets taxed — and what's left is what you actually have to live on between closings.
Three closings in March and nothing in July doesn't change the quarterly schedule. Agents who set aside per closing — instead of per quarter — stop getting caught.
Real estate is a deduction-dense business. The problem is almost never eligibility — it's documentation twelve months later.
Everything the brokerage takes is a business expense, not a reduction in income.
MLS, local board, state association, NAR, license renewal, continuing education.
Required coverage is fully deductible.
Zillow, Realtor.com, portal ads, CRM subscriptions, paid social, and farming campaigns.
Showings, inspections, open houses, closings, and previewing inventory.
Photography, video, drone, virtual tours, staging rental, and signage.
Deductible, but capped at $25 per recipient per year — a rule that catches almost everyone.
A dedicated space used regularly and exclusively for the business.
The rules changed for 2026. The 1099-NEC threshold moved from $600 to $2,000, and the 1099-K threshold went back to $20,000 and more than 200 transactions.
An S-Corp election can save a high-producing agent thousands in self-employment tax by splitting income between reasonable salary and distributions — but it has to be elected in time and run with real payroll. Late is expensive.
The rule that didn't move: all income is reportable whether or not a platform sends you a form. If your books are the only record, your books had better be right.
Here's what the year looks like when someone else holds the calendar.
Prepared by licensed CPAs and EAs who handle real estate agents constantly — not a seasonal preparer meeting your situation for the first time.
Your return comes out of reconciled monthly records, so nothing is reconstructed from memory in March.
On the Professional plan, a CPA reviews the return before it is filed.
Included on the Professional plan, so a notice is a phone call rather than a crisis.
Tax Hotline access on every plan. Ask before you sign the deal, buy the equipment, or take the write-off.
Keeps your records clean and current so you always know where you stand.
Builds the year-round strategy that shrinks the bill through planning, not scrambling.
Files accurately and on time, claiming every deduction you have earned.
Keeps everything on track and nudges you when we need something.
We handle the tax side of whatever they pay you.
Commission income doesn't arrive on a schedule. Your tax reserve shouldn't pretend it does.
Closing gifts are deductible up to a limit almost every agent exceeds without knowing.
The GCI level where reasonable salary plus distributions beats a straight Schedule C.