1031 exchanges, depreciation, tax benefits, entity taxation, deductions, and tax planning strategies.
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Foundation terms you need to know first (24 terms)
Accrual basis accounting records revenues when they are earned and expenses when they are incurred, regardless of when cash actually changes hands. This method provides a more accurate picture of a business's financial performance over time.
A tax refund is a reimbursement to taxpayers of excess tax paid to the government. For real estate investors, it represents a potential source of capital for new investments or property improvements.
The marginal tax rate is the tax rate applied to your very last dollar of taxable income. It's crucial for real estate investors to understand how additional income or deductions will impact their tax bill.
A tax credit is a direct reduction in the amount of tax owed, dollar-for-dollar, providing a significant financial benefit to real estate investors by lowering their overall tax liability.
An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a unique nine-digit number assigned by the IRS to identify a business entity for tax purposes, often required for real estate investment structures like LLCs and partnerships.
Complex strategies and professional concepts (46 terms)
The accounting process of recognizing the estimated cost of an Asset Retirement Obligation (ARO) as a liability and capitalizing a corresponding asset, which is then depreciated over its useful life, reflecting the future costs associated with retiring a long-lived asset.
Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) is a tax levied on the net income of a tax-exempt organization, including certain real estate investment vehicles, derived from a trade or business regularly carried on and not substantially related to its exempt purpose.
Tax-exempt debt refers to bonds or other debt instruments issued by governmental entities or qualified private entities, where the interest earned by the bondholder is exempt from federal, and often state and local, income taxes.
Premium financing is a sophisticated financial strategy where an investor borrows funds from a third-party lender to pay the premiums on a large insurance policy, typically a life insurance policy or substantial commercial property insurance, using the policy itself or other assets as collateral.
A Self-Directed IRA (SDIRA) is a specialized retirement account allowing investors to hold alternative assets like real estate, private equity, and precious metals, offering enhanced control but requiring strict adherence to complex IRS regulations to avoid prohibited transactions and Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).
Taxable income is the portion of an individual's or entity's gross income that is subject to taxation after all allowable deductions, exemptions, and credits have been applied. For real estate investors, it determines the actual income on which taxes are paid.
Taxable income for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) refers to the earnings generated by a REIT that are subject to taxation at the shareholder level, primarily through dividend distributions, due to the REIT's pass-through tax structure.
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) is a local tax levied on the rent paid by guests for short-term accommodations, such as hotels and vacation rentals, typically for stays less than 30 consecutive days. It funds local services and infrastructure.
An Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust (UPREIT) is a structure where a publicly traded REIT owns its properties through a controlling interest in a private operating partnership (OP), allowing property owners to contribute real estate in exchange for OP units on a tax-deferred basis.
The Unified Credit is a federal tax credit that offsets gift and estate taxes, allowing individuals to transfer a certain amount of wealth tax-free during their lifetime or at death.
Form 706 is the official IRS document used to calculate and report federal estate tax and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax liabilities for the estates of deceased U.S. citizens or residents, requiring detailed asset valuation and deduction claims.
An unrealized gain is an increase in the value of an asset that an investor still holds, meaning the profit has not yet been converted into cash through a sale. It represents a potential profit that exists on paper.
Unrealized gains and losses represent the theoretical profit or loss on an investment that has not yet been sold, reflecting the difference between its current market value and its original cost basis. These are 'paper' gains or losses until the asset is actually sold.
Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) is a tax levied on the net income of a tax-exempt organization, including certain real estate investment vehicles, derived from a trade or business regularly carried on and not substantially related to its exempt purpose.
Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI) refers to the gross income derived by a tax-exempt organization from any unrelated trade or business regularly carried on by it, less the deductions directly connected with the carrying on of such trade or business, subject to certain modifications. This income is taxable to the exempt organization.
Useful life in real estate refers to the estimated period over which an asset is expected to be economically productive, primarily used for calculating depreciation for tax purposes.
A write-off in real estate investing is an expense that can be legally subtracted from your gross income to reduce your taxable income and lower your overall tax burden.
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