1031 Exchanges Outside Of The United States: Are They Possible?


by Emma T. Connly - Date: 2008-09-10 - Word Count: 343 Share This!

As a real estate investor, you probably are aware of the advantages of a 1031 exchange over outright sale of a property. An exchange defers your capital gains taxes, keeps your money working for you, and helps to build equity and maximize your returns. But 1031 exchanges are allowed not only for the good of the investor; by allowing investors to move their capital to the most advantageous investments, section 1031 stimulates the U.S. economy.

By this logic, it wouldn't make sense to allow 1031 exchanges to be made on properties overseas, and this is indeed prohibited. Section 1031 is at least partially intended to encourage investors to invest in property located in the U.S., both for the sake of the economy and because it can be difficult or impossible for taxes to be collected on foreign property (remember that a tax deferral is more of a loan than a gift, and the IRS expects to collect on this loan in the event that you sell a replacement property outright).

If 1031 exchanges are limited to the U.S. so that the economy will benefit and the IRS will be able to collect capital gains taxes in the future, then you may be wondering what rules apply to U.S. territories such as Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. In private letter rulings, the IRS has stated that a Virgin Islands property can only qualify as like-kind in an exchange with a U.S. property if it is income-producing, which is more restrictive than the normal requirements for a like-kind exchange, which merely state that the property must be held for your trade or business or as an investment.

So if you are planning on exchanging a U.S. property for one located outside of the fifty states (plus Washington D.C.), you would be wise to take a second look at the legal precedents involved to ensure that the property will satisfy all like kind requirements, and if you are uncertain, it might be idea good idea to request a private letter ruling on your particular case.

Related Tags: finance, real estate investing, investing, investments, commercial real estate, taxes, finance articles, investors, business law, finance - investment, finance and investing, finance and investment

U.S. property investors can save their money by using 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 Uncle Sam!

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: