Cost segregation, 1031 exchanges, bonus depreciation, and the rules that decide what a rental or a sale does to your return.
An investor sells a rental, the proceeds land with a qualified intermediary, and a 45-day clock starts that no weekend will pause. Here is how many properties you can name, in what form, and what happens when you name too many.
Read postA landlord who never depreciated a rental does not amend eight old returns. One Form 3115, filed with the current year's return, deducts every skipped dollar at once as a §481(a) adjustment. Here is how the catch-up works and when you can actually use it.
Read postThe new roof goes on the depreciation schedule for 27.5 years. The old roof can come off the return as a loss this year, plus the tear-off costs, but only if you claim it on the original return for the year the roof came off the building.
Read postA gain rolled into a qualified opportunity fund today defers only to December 31, 2026, with no basis step-up, so the deferral is gone almost as soon as you claim it. Wait until 2027 and OBBBA's OZ 2.0 gives a rolling five-year deferral plus a 10% step-up, 30% in a rural fund. The 180-day rules are what let a 2026 gain make the trip. Here is the math.
Read postA rental with an average guest stay of seven days or less is not a 'rental activity' under §469, so its losses are not automatically passive. Materially participate, and a cost segregation study can drop a six-figure loss straight onto your W-2 income, no 750-hour real estate professional test required. Here is the 2026 math and the three places it quietly fails.
Read postTwo years of living in a former rental does not turn the whole gain tax-free. Since 2009, §121(b)(5) splits the gain between the years you rented and the years you lived there, and the depreciation you claimed never qualifies at all. Here is the three-step math to run before you move in.
Read postTwo strategies, cost segregation paired with a short-term rental or a spouse who qualifies as a real estate professional, can convert paper losses on real estate into deductions against W-2 income for households earning $500k and up.
Read postIf a cost segregation study or a 1031 exchange is on your radar, the most valuable conversation is the one before the closing. We model the numbers, coordinate the cost seg, and file the elections, so the strategy survives the IRS, not just the spreadsheet.