Prepay Rent to Yourself

Assume you operate your business as an S Corp and personally own 100% of the building you rent to the S Corp. If you’ve had an unusually high profit this year, you can use the “mailbox rule” to accelerate next year’s rent deduction.

On December 31, your S Corp can write a check for 12 months of rent and place it in the mail. This allows the S Corp to take the rent deduction in the current year. When you receive the check in your mailbox on January 2 of the following year, the rental income is reported on next year’s tax return.

This strategy effectively creates a net rental deduction in the current year, helping offset your unusually large profit.