Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 permits taxpayers to defer paying tax on gain for federal income tax purposes when they invest in real estate and exchange one property for another property. In Pennsylvania, whether or not taxpayers can defer gain pursuant to Section 1031 for state personal income tax purposes has been contested for years. In Pearlstein v. Commonwealth, the decision from the state Supreme Court will be a test as to whether the DOR can effectively ignore the language of its own statutes and corresponding regulations.

Any given property contains a multitude of different assets, and each of them can be expected to have a different useful life. In a cost segregation study, engineers identify and quantify building assets and then assign each asset a cost. These costs are then segregated into different categories. By segregating assets into shorter-lived categories, they can be depreciated more quickly, resulting in tax savings and increased cash flow.

When it comes to paying college tuition for your children, the best strategy is to save as much as possible as early as possible. One of the best ways to save for higher education in Pennsylvania is the PA 529 College and Career Savings Program. The Pennsylvania Treasury Department offers two PA 529 plans.