Happy New Year
Here’s to a Wonderful 2019!
We hope 2019 is a great year for you, both personally and professionally!
Liz Warren
Displaying blog entries 61-64 of 64
We hope 2019 is a great year for you, both personally and professionally!
Liz Warren
Mt. Hood 1031 tax exchangers take note. Be cautious who you use as your 1031 tax exchange intermediaries. There have been many recent financial failures of 1031 companies going under and declaring bankruptcy leaving your funds in jeopardy. Intermediaries are the folks who hold your money before you find your next property to exchange and close on.
One of the biggest companies, Land America 1031 Exchange Services, recently went under and around $420 million in assets were frozen. The problem is when an exchange company gets into a financial problem they may try to use funds to pay creditors and there the trouble begins. You could be out your money!
How do you protect yourself? Look for companies that have a proven track record with recommendations from investors. Be sure the company has adequate insurance and is bonded and has errors and omissions insurance. Find out where the funds are held. If in a bank is it solvent.
Hopefully these tips will help keep your exchange funds safe.
There's a bit of buzz in the air about 1031 tax exchange intermediaries. While tax exchanges are quite common in the Mt. Hood area the FTC is under pressure from legitimate exchange companies to regulate their industry. This is due to significant fianncial damages done to some clients. Just like there was fraud in the mortgage industry, some exhange companies have "bad eggs" too. The FTC is not ready to step into this yet but as financial issues continue to unwind in regulations will surely come into play. As I mentioned in a previous post, the amount of tax losses from questionable exchanges alone should spur the Feds to regulate.
Be careful who you hire as your exchange intermediaries. They could bite you in the end!
Tthe IRS is taking a serious look at what is happening with 1031 tax exchanges. If you do an exchange your chance of an audit just went up. The IRS promises a new exchange auditing program soon. Minnesota will audit all 1031 exchanges starting this year.
What is this all about? Well, the IRS took a good look at six large exchange companies and discovered a whopping 875 million dollars in lost revenue due to sloppy paperwork and a lack of enforcement for incomplete or illegal tax exchanges. That is a lot of money for tax strapped states and feds to potentially get their hands on. That is probably the tip of the ice burg if you look at all the other small exchange companies!
Be prepared for all states to change their laws on how the exchangers or intermediaries are regulated. Laws are changing in many states requiring the exchangers to be "licensed, and bonded". Eventually, this will mean fewer exchange companies and much higher fees.
Displaying blog entries 61-64 of 64