Tax shelters still exist and can save you money

By Jeff Schnepper

Tax shelters have been described by the unsophisticated as gimmicks or "loopholes." The fact is, Congress created these loopholes, after careful deliberation (we hope), to serve some major economic or social goal.

A tax shelter is any investment designed to reduce or avoid income taxes. This is not bad. Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Donald Alexander once said, "As a citizen, you have an obligation to the country's tax system, but you also have an obligation to yourself to know your rights under the law and possible tax deductions -- and to claim every one of them."

Real estate is a great shelter

Traditional tax shelters have included investments in real estate, oil and gas, equipment leasing, and cattle feeding and breeding programs.

Real estate is the most popular shelter. Indeed, it's such a good tax shelter that as Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., put it memorably: "It'd take a genius to invest in real estate and pay taxes." Real estate provides leverage, an inflation hedge, cash flow and equity buildup.

As your property appreciates in value, you are allowed a paper deduction for depreciation. If structured correctly, you buy the property with your down payment. Hopefully, your rents cover your mortgage interest, taxes and operating expenses.

But it's possible to come out ahead, even if the property loses money. Remember, in the 28% tax bracket, a $5,000 paper deduction for depreciation creates a real cash tax savings of $1,400. This tax-generated cash can be used for any operating expense deficit.

Moreover, as you pay down the mortgage, you're building equity. It's a win-win situation. Once your mortgage is paid off, you have an annuity in perpetuity (rents) while your investment historically has appreciated in value. The downside is that you must buy property that will appreciate in value, and, if you want to deduct your losses, you must be actively involved in its management. You can get killed if you super-leverage and the price of the real estate crashes. Be careful!

Oil and gas: No guarantees

Oil and gas investments are other popular tax shelters -- even with oil prices falling south from their summer highs by more than $100. With oil and gas, you're allowed to deduct as a current expense your investments in capital expenditures known as intangible drilling and developing costs. Nearly all the costs of drilling and completing a well are deductible in the year incurred. Normally, you would not be allowed to deduct these expenditures until the year that either the product was actually extracted from the wells or the drilling was abandoned.

Moreover, with these investments, you can use either cost depletion or percentage depletion.

Continued: Structure equipment leasing correctly

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