The 1031 Exchange Basics

By Zach Jacobs

More and more people are finding it tougher to keep a hold of their money these days. It is troubling to see that some people lose some of their money needlessly as well by not understanding some of the tax laws that can shelter some of their money from being unduly taxed.

In particular there is one way that people often misinterpret. When selling a property and then reinvesting it, it can be sheltered from taxes as long as it is done properly. If you try to shelter some money that does not qualify it could come back to hurt you.

In order to do a tax shelter that is referred to as a 1031 exchange, you must be reinvesting the money from the sell of property into like property. For example, if you sell rental property then you must reinvest it into other rental property.

There are also some other requirement s that the transaction from one property to the other be completed in a certain time frame. For example, the replacement property must be identified within 45 days of the sale of the relinquished property. Also, the sale must be completed within 180 days.

In order to do a 1031 exchange and have it qualify you must use a 3rd party who has been qualified to process a 1031. They are primarily used to hold the proceeds from the sale until you reinvest it into the new property. The government has made this rule to protect against from 1031 fraud.

However, it is possible for a person to have a gain and still complete a 1031 exchange. It is not advised most of the time, but it can be done. The gain in this case is often referred to as a boot. The boot must be reported and taxes paid on it.

A boot, as it is called in the real estate business, can come about even when you did not intend it to. Sometimes, you sale a property and then in the reinvestment you get a better price on the replacement property and you end up paying less than what you sold the last one for. When that happens, you have a gain. You can also have this happen if the debt is simply reduced on the property that you are about to purchase.

One of the more difficult pieces of a 1031 exchange is finding the replacement property within the first 45 days following the sale of the other property. The IRS is strict on this one and will not file extensions on this, so it is a good idea to have a head start on that one before beginning the process. - 31821

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