An Investor’s Guide To Tax Shelters 

As a real estate investor, your personal or company tax burden may sometimes feel impossible to alleviate. Tax shelters and other tax reduction programs provide investors and other taxpayers an opportunity to legally lower their tax bill.  

A tax shelter (not to be confused with a ‘tax haven’) refers to any method of reducing taxable income so that tax liabilities are minimized. Investors can use tax shelters to reduce their taxable income and overall tax liability on their rental and investment properties. Tax shelters include both investments and investment accounts that provide favorable tax treatment, as well as deductions as laid out by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

By utilizing deductions, credits, and benefits, you can effectively shelter your rental income from excessive taxation. Real estate provisions like depreciation deductions, 1031 exchanges, and other methods discussed below can optimize your tax situation. 

In this article, we discuss three legal strategies to lower your tax bill and get the most out of the tax opportunities established by the IRS for real estate investors. 

Understand and Utilize Capital Gains on Home Sale 

First, to understand the following tax benefits, let’s discuss what capital gains tax on rental property is and how it influences your tax situation. Capital gains on home sale tax comes into play when you sell an asset. In this case, you would be selling a piece of property for profit. Capital gains fall into two categories: short- and long-term.  

Short-Term Capital Gains  

A short-term capital gain is realized when an investor sells an asset within a year of buying it, such as after “flipping” a property. This type of sale can have a negative effect on your taxes because short-term capital gains get counted as regular income. Thus, you’d need to pay income tax on the sale of that investment property similar to how you pay income taxes on other income you receive throughout the year. 

Long-Term Capital Gains 

Long-term capital gains are realized if you hold an asset for over a year before selling, such as usually occurs with buy-and-hold real estate investing. It’s better to try and hold on past the one-year anniversary of your asset because long-term capital gains are not taxed as regular income and have a much lower tax rate. 

Now that we’ve covered capital gains, let’s discuss the type of tax benefits you can experience by doing your research and realizing certain tax deductions available to investors in the tax code. 

1. Depreciation Deductions in Real Estate

A real estate investor can deduct depreciation, or the loss of an asset’s value over time, on their taxes as an expense. The IRS currently allows rental property owners to make depreciation deductions for the entire expected life of the building, which is currently at 27.5 years for residential properties and 39 years for commercial.  

By spreading out this deduction over the useful life of the property, you can offset your rental income or capital gains, lowering the amount subject to taxation. This tax benefit is a valuable tool for real estate investors, providing a non-cash deduction that can significantly impact your overall tax obligations. 

While this deduction is helpful and will reduce your taxable income, you still need to be prepared to pay the standard income tax rate on the depreciation you’ve claimed over the years. This process of repayment is called depreciation recapture. However, if you use depreciation deductions in tandem with other tax strategies like the 1031 exchange, you can reduce your depreciation recapture burden as well.  

2. Utilizing Incentive Programs like 1031 Exchanges and Opportunity Zones 

The government oftentimes develops special tax codes that incentivize investors to continue investing through major tax benefits. Two of these benefits are 1031 exchanges and Qualified Opportunity Zones.  

1031 Exchanges 

In a 1031 exchange, also known as a like-kind exchange, you can defer paying capital gains taxes on the sale of investment properties by reinvesting the proceeds into another similar property. This strategy allows you to defer taxes and potentially increase your real estate investment portfolio without immediate tax burdens. 

The government created this incentive to reward investors who reinvest their real estate profits into other real estate initiatives. Keep in mind that the new property you buy must be of equal or greater value than the one you’re selling, but besides that rule, you can utilize 1031 exchanges indefinitely.  

When you finally decide to cash out your profits for good, you will have to pay taxes on that amount. The process of paying taxes on 1031 exchanges varies based on the type and timing of your real estate purchase, so it’s a good idea to consult with a tax expert before participating.  

Opportunity Zones 

Another type of incentive program that the government lays out for real estate investors are opportunity zones. 

Qualified opportunity zones (QOZs) are disadvantaged areas of land designated by the United States Department of Treasury. The idea behind opportunity zones is to develop these low-income areas and stimulate the communities surrounding them by offering interested investors tax breaks for building there.  

By placing your unrealized capital gains into a Qualified Opportunity fund, you allow your money to go towards improving the selected land area. You could enjoy deferred capital gains and grow your capital gains by 10-15%. Or, if you stay invested for more than 10 years, you can avoid paying capital gains all together.  

These advantages do come with their own set of rules and stipulations, so be sure to do your own research or chat with a qualified investing consultant before taking part in this program.  

3. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) as Tax Shelters

Another way to lower your tax bill is to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). REITs pool capital from multiple investors into one fund that is used to invest in properties like apartment complexes, office buildings, etc. When you invest in an REIT, you do not have to deal with property management tasks, but still have proportional ownership of all the properties included in that REIT. This way, investors can own income-generating real estate without ever needing to buy property. It’s important to remember that in order for your trust to qualify as a REIT, that trust must distribute 90% or more of its taxable income to shareholders.  

Investors can enjoy a generous and consistent income stream without much effort invested into the project. However, REIT dividends do have their own set of tax considerations that you should consider before participating. REIT payments like capital gains, return of capital, or regular income are all treated differently under tax law. Because of this, taxation can get complicated. Be sure to consult with a trusted accountant or tax professional before you dive in.  

Conclusion 

Now that you’ve learned about the benefits of using real estate as a tax shelter, you can take advantage of depreciation deductions, 1031 exchanges, opportunity zones, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to maximize your tax savings. 

By strategically investing in real estate, you can shelter your income from excessive taxation and build wealth for the future.