“Usually when people sell property at a profit, that profit is considered income and taxed,” said Steve Wamhoff, senior fellow for federal tax policy at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “But some investors are able to set up deals so that technically they are just ‘trading’ one property for another, and they tell the IRS that it was just a trade, not a sale, so there is no income to tax. (This is called a like-kind exchange.)
“The new law eliminates this break — except for real estate. It’s as if lawmakers made sure that their half-hearted attempts to close loopholes and special breaks did not touch wealthy real estate investors like the Trumps and the Kushners.” Read more
