报税季节，摘录一些老美省税的方法，这篇是介绍投资房产如何避税的。对了，该文引用的网站是介绍房产投资方面知识的很好参考资料。

here are numerous real estate tax benefits available for real estate investors. Indeed, it’s such a great tax shelter that Rep. Pete Stark said that: “It’d take a genius to invest in real estate and pay taxes.” Yes, in real estate, you can have leverage, cash flow, inflation hedge, equity buildup, and still pay no tax.

Some real estate tax benefits include:

1) when you start up your investing business, your start up expense is deductible. And here is a short list of your possible start up expense:

* Legal expense (amortized over 60 months)
* Accounting fees
* Office equipment and furniture
* Cost of investing business like seminars, travel, books,etc.

2) When you buy and own your properties, you can deduct as an expense all of the:

* Points Paid for Mortgage (amortized over the life of theloan)
* Interest on your loan
* Property taxes
* Property management fees
* Repair cost
* Insurance cost
* Inspection fees
* Marketing cost
* Legal expense
* Accounting fees
* Homeowner’s association dues
* Utilities
* Travel expense (if you have a business purpose to your trip)
* automobiletax deduction
* Employ your children in your business and write off theirsalary up to $4700.
* Depreciation of items in the property such as washingmachines, furniture, etc.
* Depreciation of the property: The IRS allows you todepreciate your rental property (not land) as if it would be worth nothing in 27.5 years. Let’s assume you have a $250,000 rental property and 80% of the value is in the structure. You should be allowed to write off about $7,300 eachyear. For many individuals this is a HUGE tax advantage.

3) When you sell or refinance your property:

* The 1997 tax act exempts from taxation profits on the saleof a personal residence of up to $500,000 for married couples filing jointly and $250,000 for singles;
* Tax on the gain of selling investment properties can bedeferred by using 1031exchange or reverse1031 exchange.
* You can cash out your equity through refinancing and themoney is tax free.