What is a 1031 Exchange?
1031 exchanges are specifically structured transactions that join together the sale of an old property and the purchase of a new property for the purpose of deferring taxes.
Exchanges are primarily used for buying and selling investment real estate, but they can also be used for personal property that is used in a business. Examples of qualifying property include bare land, rental property, commercial buildings and homes other than your primary residence.
How Can a 1031 Exchange Work for Me?
A 1031 exchange can defer the capital gain taxes that are due when you sell property that has increased in value or been depreciated for tax purposes. These federal and state capital gain taxes can be costly.
Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 can benefit you in several other ways. By deferring taxes, you have increased flexibility, leverage and buying power. Exchanges also allow you to change, diversify or consolidate your investments
What Makes a 1031 ExpertExchange Different?
What many QIs don't want you to know is that their industry is largely unregulated. Without standards, they can offer you little assurance of their training and qualifications. In fact, they will do little more in an exchange than fill in the blanks on generic forms.
But The 1031 Exchange Experts are different: we do ExpertExchanges. All of our exchanges are handled by a team of CPAs and real estate attorneys. Choosing our licensed professionals ensures that the education, knowledge and ethical standards of our team have passed rigorous testing.
You can trust our experience as well. We've completed thousands of qualified 1031 exchanges.
There are literally thousands of rules you would need to know to successfully complete a §1031 exchange without violating an IRS statute. But 97% of all those straight exchanges are basically covered by only Six of those things! Click here to learn what those Six Basic Rules You Need To Know are, and see if you're eligible to defer your taxable gain under IRC section 1031...
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The IRS Rules for Exchanges...
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You will need to follow six primary rules for your exchange to meet stringent IRS regulations: |
Real Property Use. Both your old and new properties must qualify as investment or business use. If both properties pass this test, you can exchange nearly any type of real estate.
45 Day Identification Period. You have 45 days from the closing of your sale to list the properties you may want to buy. There are no exceptions to the deadline.
180 Day Exchange Period. From the sale closing date, you have 180 days to close on the purchase of one or more properties from the 45-day list. Again, there are no exceptions to this deadline.
Qualified Intermediary (QI). The IRS mandates that you use a QI to prepare the legal documents for your exchange. Because the QI must be independent, it cannot be your friend, employee, broker, or even your accountant or attorney. The QI also holds your money, so that you do not have access to it.
Proper title holding. You must purchase and take title to your new property exactly as you held title to your old property.
Reinvestment Requirement. To defer all of your capital gain tax, you must buy a property equal or higher in value than the one you sold. Also, you must reinvest all of the cash proceeds from your sale.