How To Close Real Estate Expenses With A 1031 Tax Exchange

By Gary D. Dehass

In closing a sale on real estate, a number of expenses have to be considered such as the standard operating expenses pertaining to the money used as your agent's commission and for the recording of the deed. All these are taken from the proceeds and are reflected on the closing statement. Yet there are also other costs like rent proration and security deposits that crop up during the transaction.

These types of expenses do not form part of the closing statement. Transactions on 1031 exchange allow some expenses to be debited on your closing statement. However, some costs are inappropriate to be included so.

In changing ownership, you also transfer future rent and security deposits to the property's new owner. Getting the amount from your own account to cover said expenses can be the most suitable way to deal with this. You can not debit said expenses from your closing statement because in the process, you are freeing money from your account and using 'boot' from the transaction's proceeds.

Taking away boot or sale proceeds has caused many investors to be pursued by the IRS for judicial proceeding. Cash benefits or boot from the sale of a property is not part of a like-kind exchange.

Fees on loan origination, underwriting, and processing all must be dealt with as part of your acquiring possession on new debt on your replacement property. Since they do not form part of a like-kind exchange, the most sensible thing to do is to be the one responsible on these expenses.

The fact of the matter is that the IRS examines these sorts of transactions, and will not look kindly on your receiving non-like-kind proceeds or cash benefits from 1031 transactions. With this in mind, you should be wary and take care regarding what expenses end up on your closing statement. - 23162

About the Author:

United States investors can save big money by utilizing a 1031 exchange to defer all of their capital gains tax on the sale of investment property. A 1031 tax exchange is similar to an interest free loan from the U.S. Government.