Rent to own residential rental

[fredr]

Client has rented out house to same person for years and has claimed income on schedule E. Now he says it is a rent to own transaction where he pays same amount for a number of years. How is this reported, no 1099s has been made out because transfer of ownership does not happen until it is paid for.

[IRonMaN · Accepted solution]

Then you have an installment sale.  But before you go through that effort, you might want to see the paperwork that backs up what the client is telling you.  Sometimes there is a short circuit between reality and what a client tells us, so you always want to see the backup.

[fredr]

The big problem is this has been going on for 4 years and now he tells me.

[jeffmcpa2010]

Have the client bring you a copy of the contract.

[IRonMaN]

David Letterman used to have a segment called stupid pet tricks.  He really should have had a segment called stupid client tricks. 

[fredr]

How many years can i amend in this situation?

[jeffmcpa2010]

You need to slow down a couple of minutes.

I don't think you know what you have yet. All you have told us is "The Client Says".

My recollection from and old business law class is that you can not have a "Verbal Contract" for certain transactions, and I believe one of them was transactions involving real estate.

If they don't have a written, properly signed enforceable contract - they don't have a sale yet.

GET THE PAPERWORK. If there is none, then they have no sale yet!, 

If there is paperwork, then you can figure out how to proceed.

[sjrcpa]

" transfer of ownership does not happen until it is paid for."

If so, that's a land contract (?) which is a different animal that I know nothing about.

As everyone else said, get the contract first.