Tax Savings Through Cost Segregation with Yonah Weiss

In case you didn’t know, property owners can gain tax savings through cost segregation. That’s what Yonah Weiss is all about. Yonah is a cost segregation specialist at Madison SPECS who has assisted clients in saving tens of millions of dollars. In this episode, Yonah explains what cost segregation actually is and why it’s one of the best ways to defer or eliminate capital gains tax on the sale of a highly appreciated CRE property. He also shares best practices for building real estate and why team effort works, both in their company and with partners. He also talks about strategies around depreciation recapture tax and gives scenarios on what a cost segregation study will cost, when it will benefit you and when it won’t. To know more about Yonah and cost segregation, you can listen their podcast, Higher Profits with Bobby and Yonah or Yonah’s own Weiss Advice.

I’m excited about our next guest. Many real estate investors struggle with reducing capital gains tax but also tax savings when it comes to owning commercial real estate or businesses. Our next guest is a cost segregation specialist. Together with his team at , they help property and business owners save millions of dollars every single year. In fact, over the past years, Madison SPECS and our guest have done over 15,000 cost segregation studies covering all 50 states resulting in over $3 billion in tax savings. Please welcome with me, Yonah Weiss.

Thank you much, Brett. It’s a pleasure to be on the show. I’m happy to be able to share some of my knowledge with your readers.

I’m looking forward to diving in. Yonah, what podcasts are you on? You launched one, I believe.

We only have recorded one episode thus far, but it’s called Higher Profits with Bobby and Yonah. I’m in the process of launching another podcast on my own. I’m getting some recordings done before launching and that’s called Weiss Advice.

Let’s get started. Give our readers a little bit about your story and your focus.

I have a background in teaching. I spent close to two decades teaching various levels, all the way from kindergarten up to post-collegiate levels. I have six children so every day is teaching. Every day is part of education and that’s my passion which for whatever reason, it led me to real estate a few years ago. When I started to learn everything about real estate, I fell in love with it and everything there was to do with it. One thing led to another and I got involved as brokerage and commercial mortgages. I fell into this position with Madison Commercial Real Estate, the company I work for and Madison SPECS with the specific conservation division. I found what I’m doing is teaching about constant aggregation. I’m the business director so I’m able to work on business development and teach people about something that most people don’t know about.

You’re in the business of educating and helping people out. You started out as a teacher and went into real estate, in particular cost segregation. When you join Madison SPECS, did you go, “I want to be a cost segregation specialist?” How did that progression go where you said, “I’m going to specialize in focus?” What was that journey?

Madison SPECS is one of the industry leaders in the United States for cost segregation. We have a whole team of engineers and accountants who have been doing this for decades. They’re the experts in the field. I wanted to soak up everything from them so I could be able to give it over. What I found is a small percentage of people, and probably your readers also, don’t understand cost segregation. Most people wonder, “It’s tax-related so my accountant must be taking care of this.” I’m sure you’ve come across this quite often as well, Brett. That’s unfortunately not the case. To be able to educate people about something they can take into their own hands, which is their income because, at the end of the day, we’re discussing income tax, which is depreciation, cost segregation.

It’s an income tax saving more than anything. It can save capital gains as well, so it’s your income. People have this misconception that, “If I make income, I have to pay tax on it.” That’s part of I would say the corporate structure that you get taxes deducted from your paycheck even before you see the money you’ve made. The truth is in real estate, there are so many deductions that you can create that you can keep all of your income. It’s yours. It’s not to say, “Don’t pay your taxes if you’re obligated,” but know that making money does not mean that you have to pay tax on it if you don’t have that tax liability.

Check out our full episode Link below.

https://savetax.capitalgainstaxsolutions.com/capitalgainstaxsolutionspodcast