If you have dreams of doing a lot of real estate investing like the pros on television, then you’re going to have to start thinking like the pros on television. And that means maximizing all of your profits without paying too much in taxes. Now, before we really tear into the meat of this topic, it’s very important that you keep in mind that there is really no way to get to a zero percent tax rate if you’re thinking about serious money. This is something that gets thrown around online, but the truth is that if you try to abuse a tax shelter, it’s going to bite you in the long run. And trust us — the IRS wants to make sure that you give them their money in full. If you try to get around this, the penalties are pretty ugly. It’s also important to realize that real estate transactions are some of the most heavily monitored in the industry. So if you think that you’re going to avoid paying Uncle Sam just because you decided to go about flipping homes, you’re going to be mistaken.
Now, why would anyone really want to get deep into this? Capital gains taxes on profits can really eat you alive. In this country, it can be 30% when you combine state and federal taxes. The less tax you pay means that you have much more than other people to keep investing. Money is supposed to make more money until you either abandon the process, or push forward and take it to a whole new level. You just need to figure out exactly what you’re trying to do, and then take care of that.
One of the best kept secrets of investing when it comes to lowering your taxes would have to be the 1031 exchange. These exchanges defer taxes, which is always a good thing. If you know that a transaction could put you in a higher tax bracket one year over another, you can use 1031′s to your advantage. That’s the whole point of this guide — not only deferring taxes, but helping you save money in the long run.
The 1031 Exchange is based in Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. The IRC is actually how you figure out what you are taxed, how you are taxed, and where those figures are coming from. If you’re going to ever try to do your own business taxes or you just want to keep your accountants honest, you will need to still make sure that you are aware of how these exchanges work.
The 1031 exchange allows a taxpayer to sell property and replace it with a like-kind property.
This is a very important term here — like-kind has a definite definition that you have to keep in mind, or the entire deal will fall apart.
Like-kind property would normally fall into the same category as the property that you just bought. An office building would be fine in exchange for a shopping center, a shopping center could be exchanged for land, and land could be exchanged for an industrial building. If you had an apartment building, you would be able to exchange it for the industrial building. If you had a single family rental, you could exchange it for a tenants in common property.
This is a business oriented tax code, and it’s important that you understand that personal residences don’t qualify. In addition, fix and flip schemes usually will not be able to use the 1031 exchange to your advantage.
If you want to complete an exchange, here is how you do it. You will need to list and market the property as normal. However, when you find a buyer and they set forth the purchase contract, you have to go ahead and enter an exchange agreement with a Qualified Intermediary. They will be the substitute seller. The exchange agreement will essentially sign the contract over to the Intermediary, who in turn receives the proceeds that are due to the seller.
There are some time restrictions that are also very important. The 45-Day Rule for Identification is one of the most important. The taxpayer HAS TO close on or identify in writing a potential Replacement Property within 45 days from the closing and transfer of the original property. This is a straight 45 days — calendar days, weekends and holidays included. The IRS will give no extensions on this time limit.
Let’s say you’re feeling rebellious and you go over your time limit because you just haven’t planned that far out yet — what happens then? Well, the IRS can disqualify your whole exchange, meaning that taxes would then be due on the amount that you tried to avoid in the first place!
You want to identify three properties without regard to their fair market value. This gives you due diligence power to select the property that works best for you, and the one that will close in time to avoid the penalties.
There’s another time restriction that needs to be addressed as well. You also have 180 days from the date the old property was given to the buyer to close on the new property. Yet it can get even trickier, because if the due date on your tax return is earlier than the 180 day period, then you’re going to need to complete the exchange by that earlier date. You also have to realize that you already ate up 45 days of your total — the 180 includes this 45 as well.
This is one of the top reasons to make sure that you have not only a skilled accountant, but also a lawyer to help you run through the process. Many attorneys are also certified public accountants for this reason. You need to find an attorney that has handled many of these like-kind exchanges so that you don’t end up losing out on the tax benefits.
As complicated as this can be, there are amazing benefits. For starters, if your goal is to avoid taxes all the way until death, you could do that — but your heirs would end up receiving a diminished estate in return. If leaving the most amount of money to your surviving family is important, then you will need to plan accordingly.
Still, despite all of the twists and turns, we think that 1031 exchanges are pretty cool. If you’re going to incorporate and do business as a real estate investor, this is something that you definitely want to try to keep in mind as much as possible!


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