Any Real Estate property owner or investor of Real Estate, should consider an exchange when he/she expects to acquire a replacement "like kind" property subsequent to the sale of his existing investment property.

 

Anything otherwise would necessitate the payment of a capital gain tax.  Also include the federal and state tax rates of your given state when doing a 1031 exchange. The main reason for a 1031 is that the IRS depreciates capital real estate investments at a 3% per year rate as long as you hold the investment, until it is fully depreciated.

 

When you sell the capital asset, the IRS wants to tax you on the depreciated portion as an income tax, and that would be at the marginal tax rate. Example, if you hold an investment for 15 years, the IRS depreciates it 45%. It then wants you to pay the taxes on that 45% depreciation. If combined state and federal taxes are 35% at the marginal rate, that's about 15% of the cost of the property (one third of 45%).

 

If your property is fully depreciated, it becomes the whole 35% marginal tax rate. Another way to make it easy to understand is when purchasing a replacement property (without the benefit of a 1031 exchange) your buying power is reduced to the point, that it only represents 70-80% of what it did previously (before the exchange and payment of taxes).

 

Contact the knowledgable team at Henderson & Associates with any questions or concerns regarding 1031 Exchanges, we're here to help.