As you likely remember, the Section 1031 exchange allows you to sell a piece of appreciated real estate and defer all the taxes as long as you invest the entire proceeds in like-kind property.

And then consider this: a cost segregation study allows you to separate qualifying real estate into separate components with shorter depreciable lives that speed up deductions and in many cases create immediate write-offs.

Can you (a) defer a large gain via Section 1031 and (b) immediately create a large write-off on the new asset with a cost segregation study?

You can, but you have to make sure you don’t miss this one important step. ... Log in to view full article.