#real-estate
Real Estate
Real estate accounting, property tracking, and investment management
ASC 842 Lease Accounting for Private Companies: Putting Operating Leases on the Balance Sheet
ASC 842 requires private companies to capitalize nearly every lease longer than 12 months as a right-of-use asset and a lease liability. This guide walks through the five-criteria classification test, the six-step calculation, the risk-free rate and short-term lease expedients, and the audit findings that most often trigger restatements.
Section 461(l) Excess Business Loss Limitation: A 2026 Guide for Pass-Through Owners
Section 461(l) caps how much net business loss a noncorporate taxpayer can deduct against other income. For 2026, the OBBBA reset thresholds to $256,000 single and $512,000 joint—down from $313,000 and $626,000 in 2025. This guide explains the Form 461 calculation, the four loss-limitation gates, and planning moves for K-1 losses, bonus depreciation, and real estate.
Form 4797 Demystified: How Depreciation Recapture and Section 1231 Decide Whether Your Business Sale Is Ordinary or Capital
Form 4797 governs every business property sale outside Schedule D and decides whether your gain is ordinary or capital. This guide walks through Section 1245 and 1250 recapture, the Section 1231 five-year lookback rule, the 25% unrecaptured Section 1250 gain rate, and seven mistakes that trigger CP2000 notices.
Reverse 1031 Exchange: How to Buy Your Replacement Property Before Selling the Old One
A reverse 1031 exchange lets a real estate investor close on a replacement property before selling the relinquished one by parking title with an Exchange Accommodation Titleholder under Revenue Procedure 2000-37's safe harbor. The taxpayer must identify the relinquished property within 45 days and complete the swap within 180 days, with no extensions. EAT fees typically run $5,000 to $15,000 above a forward exchange, so the deferred gain needs to be large enough to justify the cost.
Section 121 Home Sale Exclusion: How Homeowners Can Skip Up to $500,000 in Capital Gains Taxes
How Section 121 lets U.S. homeowners exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for joint filers) of capital gains on a primary home sale — covering the 24-month ownership and use tests, the two-year frequency rule, partial exclusions, depreciation recapture, and the nonqualified-use allocation.
Section 199A REIT Dividend Deduction: The 20% Tax Break Most REIT Investors Don't Fully Use
Section 199A lets investors deduct 20% of qualified REIT dividends from taxable income, dropping the top federal rate from 37% to about 29.6%. This guide covers Box 5 of Form 1099-DIV, the 45-day holding-period rule, Form 8995, and how OBBBA made the deduction permanent.
The Short-Term Rental Tax Loophole: Offsetting W-2 Income Without Real Estate Professional Status
How short-term rentals sit outside the Section 469 passive loss rules, what the seven-day average and material participation tests actually require, and how a six-figure W-2 earner can use cost segregation and 100% bonus depreciation to legally offset wage income.
Self-Directed IRAs for Real Estate and Alternative Assets: A Practical Compliance Guide
A practical guide to Self-Directed IRAs (SDIRAs) — what you can hold, the disqualified-person rules under IRC §4975, UBIT and UDFI on leveraged real estate, the McNulty checkbook-control warning, and the recordkeeping disciplines that prevent a deemed distribution.
Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT): A 3.8% Surtax Guide for High Earners and Investors
The 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax kicks in once MAGI crosses $200,000 single or $250,000 joint—thresholds frozen since 2013. This guide explains who pays NIIT, how Form 8960 calculates it, which income types count (interest, dividends, capital gains, passive rentals) and which don't (wages, IRA distributions, muni interest), plus planning levers to cut exposure.
Qualified Opportunity Zones in 2026: Capital Gains Deferral, Tax-Free Growth, and the OBBBA Reset
How Qualified Opportunity Funds defer capital gains, deliver tax-free appreciation after a 10-year hold, and what changes for new investments under OBBBA's permanent Opportunity Zones 2.0 rules starting January 2027.
Step-Up in Basis at Death: The Estate Planning Strategy That Eliminates Capital Gains for Your Heirs
Section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code resets an inherited asset's cost basis to its fair market value on the date of death, erasing the decedent's lifetime appreciation from the tax base — a provision the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will cost the federal government $72.5 billion in 2026.
Passive Activity Loss Rules: A Real Estate Investor's Guide to the $25,000 Allowance and the Real Estate Professional Election
Section 469 makes rental losses passive by default, so most cannot offset W-2 income. This guide covers the $25,000 special allowance and its $100k–$150k MAGI phase-out, the 750-hour and 50% real estate professional tests, the 1.469-9(g) aggregation election, audit-tested time-log practices, and how suspended losses unlock on disposition.