Real estate tax update

On Mar 30, 2010, Pres Barack Obama signed into law the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA). HCERA made several technical changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law on Mar 23, 2010, and generally expands healthcare coverage for many Americans that are currently uninsured. HCERA also contains significant tax changes that are presented in this article. On Mar 18, 2010, Pres Barack Obama signed into law the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE). The HIRE Act provides substantial tax incentives for employers to hire and retain employees and invest in new machinery and equipment. On Mar 5, 2010, the IRS released Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2010-14. This Rev. Proc. provides a safe harbor method for certain taxpayers to report gain or loss recognized from deferred IRC § 1031 exchanges that fail because the qualified intermediary defaults on its obligation to acquire and transfer replacement property to the taxpayer.