Like-Kind Exchanges
If you’re a savvy investor, you probably know that you must generally report any mutual fund distributions as income, whether you reinvest them or exchange shares in one fund for shares in another. In other words, you must report and pay any capital gains tax owed.
But if real estate’s your game, did you know that it’s possible to defer capital gains by taking advantage of a tax break that allows you to swap investment property on a tax-deferred basis?
If you’re a savvy investor, you probably know that you must generally report as income any mutual fund distributions, whether you reinvest them or exchange shares in one fund for shares of another. In other words, you must report and pay any capital gains tax owed.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tossed an unwanted rule into Section 1031 by forbidding exchanges of personal property.
But before we move on, let’s clarify one thing: Section 1031 is not an “exchange,” which is defined by Merriam-Webster as a trade. In a tax code 1031 exchange, you generally would
