WSJ article: 'Real Estate Industry Braces for Tax Upheaval'
Has anybody else seen this article?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/real-estate-industry-b...
The general point is that while Trump's tax plan is silent on the subject, the GOP tax plan that has been gaining steam proposes eliminating deductions for state and local property taxes and eliminating the mortgage interest deduction for businesses (while preserving it for individuals). The plan also calls for more than doubling of the standard deduction for taxpayers, which would eliminate the need/benefit to itemizing deductions (such as mortgage interest payments). Finally, the plan calls for eliminating or changing the depreciation expense for real estate companies and businesses.
I've pasted a few key passages from the article below so you can get the gist. This is radical stuff. We're talking about potentially upending all of the main tax benefits of RE investing, which is the whole reason we do what we do. In the most radical scenario where all of these deductions are eliminated, do people think the demand for buying RE will greatly decline on the whole? Wouldn't the majority of people prefer to rent than to own if there's no tax advantages to owning?
There was also another article in the WSJ yesterday discussing how house flipping is back to all-time highs, matching the 2006 levels. All of this makes me a bit nervous heading into 2017 and beyond. A lot of uncertainty...
Here are some key passages from the article:
The GOP blueprint calls for the elimination of the deduction for state and local property tax. Industry executives also worry the plan could severely cripple the mortgage interest deduction—long considered a sacred cow of U.S. tax policy.
The blueprint proposal released in June said it would preserve the mortgage interest deduction. But it also would nearly double the standard deduction that taxpayers could receive, thus eliminating most itemized deductions. Mr. Trump proposed an even larger standard deduction.
“Because of the other provisions included in the new tax system, far fewer taxpayers will choose to itemize deductions,” says the Better Way proposal released in June.
The upshot, real-estate industry leaders worry, would be that fewer people would be incentivized to purchase homes, which would weigh on demand and possibly the broader economy.
The House proposal also would eliminate for all businesses the current deduction for debt interest payments. Leverage has long played a major role in most acquisitions of office buildings, stores, hotels and other commercial property in part because interest payments are tax deductible.
Another sea change in commercial real estate would be in the way the House blueprint would affect depreciation. Tax law currently allows buyers of rental apartment buildings to depreciate the cost over 27.5 years and other commercial real estate over 39 years.
The House plan would eliminate depreciation for real-estate companies as well as other businesses. Instead, buyers of real estate would be able to treat the entire cost of buying a property—excluding land—as a business expense that could be used to reduce income. If a buyer didn’t have enough income in the year they bought the building, they could be able to carry the expense forward into future years as a net operating loss.