Tax shelter is a moniker that implies a scheme designed to avoid taxes. Some tax shelters were legal and some were clearly illegal. Most of the tax shelters focused exclusively on tax benefits and did not have an economic basis. There is no IRS documentation defining proper methods for implementation of tax shelters.
Tax shelters included activity with the purchase and sale of stock, cattle, real estate (typically high leveraged) and oil and gas. These tax shelters often involved economic activity with a questionable or inaccurate interpretation of the law. In some cases, they involved a questionable economic activity with an accurate interpretation of the law. In other cases, there was no meaningful economic activity associated with the tax shelter.
Cost segregation is simply an IRS-governed method of accurately depreciating real estate and identifying tax reductions. There is no separate economic activity. The tax reductions and tax benefits resulting from cost segregation are substantial. Commercial real estate investors and owners of corporate real estate are amazed at the tax reductions it affords. The IRSs Audit Technique Guide provides a safe harbor for using cost segregation for real estate to increase tax reductions.
Cost segregation produces tax deductions and reduces federal income taxes across the country and in every size market. Below are just a few examples of where cost segregation generates meaningful tax reductions.
City:
Philadelphia, PA
Hartford, CT
New York, NY
Orlando, FL
Baltimore, MD
Tampa, FL
San Francisco, CA
Miami, FL
Washington, DC
Houston, TX
Albany, NY
Dayton, OH
Charlotte, NC
Des Moines, IA
Harrisburg, PA
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Augusta, GA
Stockton, CA
Riverside, CA
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
Manchester, NH
Sacramento, CA
Charleston, SC
McAllen, TX
Syracuse, NY
St. Louis, MO
Jacksonville, TN
Omaha, NE
Madison, WI
Indianapolis, IN
Cost segregation produces tax deductions for virtually all property types.
Property Type:
Car wash facility
Medical facility
Skating rink
Community shopping center
Funeral home
Truck terminal
Motel
Regional mall
Nursing home
Racket club
Almost every industry, including the following, can generate cost-efficient tax deductions by using cost segregation.
Industry:
Warehousing and storage
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
Amusement parks
Day care facilities
Laundry facilities
Electrical component manufacturing
Automotive parts distributors
Beverage and tobacco product manufacturing
Leather product manufacturing
Transportation equipment manufacturing
Author's Bio:
OConnor & Associates is a national provider of commercial real estate consulting services including cost segregation, federal tax reduction
, due diligence, renovation upgrading cost analyses, tax return review and apartment inspections.
