Business Lawyers Blog
As a business and real estate attorney in California, I often assist clients in real estate transactions using Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 to defer the tax on the sale of their real estate by transferring the tax attributes of that property into a new, like-kind, property. IRC Section 1031 is a federal statute, but we can also take advantage of the tax deferral on the exchange of like-kind property for California income taxes.
However, historically, when the exchange was made into property in another state, it was difficult for California to track these exchanges and make sure the state eventually got its share of deferred taxes. For example, if a real estate investor were to sell a shopping center in Sunnyvale, California and buy a shopping center in Incline Village, Nevada, and the real estate investor satisfied all of the IRC 1031 requirements, both federal and California taxes could be deferred until the later taxable sale of the Nevada property (or any other property into which it had been exchanged). The problem was that part of those deferred taxes were California income taxes, and California had no system in place to make sure the FTB was aware of the eventual tax recognition event. A new rule now provides the Franchise Tax Board with the information it needs to keep track of these transactions and the deferred taxes so that it can collect them when the time is right.
Starting January 1, 2014, if you exchange California property for out-of-state property you will be required to file an information return with the FTB for the year of the exchange and every subsequent year that the gain is deferred. Regardless of your state of residency at the time of the exchange, if you are a California resident when the out-of-state property is later sold, all of the gain is taxable in California. But don’t think that moving to Nevada can get you out of theses deferred taxes. If you were a California resident at the time of the exchange but you are a nonresident when it is sold, the previously untaxed California gain is still taxable to California. Also, if you exchange out-of-state property for California property you must reduce the California basis on the property by the amount deferred, even if you were a nonresident at the time of the exchange. [Source: Spidell’s California Taxletter, Vol. 35.7, July 1, 2013]. The new filing requirements will help the FTB track these exchanges.