1031 Exchanges And The Closing Expenses On Real Estate Sales

By Edward R. Bunten

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 sorts of expenses don't seem to fit on your typical closing statement, and for good reason. Some costs are appropriate to debit off your closing statement during a 1031 exchange transaction, and there are some that most certainly are not.

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.

Like-kind exchange does not consider all cash benefits or boot received from the sale of a property. In fact, the IRS has pursued all property investors who tried to use this kind of tactic.

You are responsible for all the expenses related to your replacement property particularly those that are not under like-kind exchange. In the course of a 1031 exchange - you also have to take into account fees for loan origination, underwriting, and processing. Payment of these fees has to come from your own property.

What this article would like to leave you is that as an investor, you need to be very careful in your closing transactions. The IRS looks closely into these kinds of transactions and your receipt of cash benefits from 1031 exchanges can have its drawbacks. - 23229

About the Author:

U.S. 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.