There’s a lot of talk these days about whether it’s moral to use these methods of tax avoidance, but I don’t think morality has anything to do with it. The bottom line is that the government freely offers these incentives to real estate investors. Congress wrote the tax code and breaking those rules, of course, is wrong. However, there is nothing wrong with using every legal method of avoiding or minimizingtaxes. After all, tax receipts only go up as real estate developers transform properties to meet current demand trends and thus stimulate tax revenue. That’s why developers get tax breaks: at the end of the day, they are helping create jobs, tax revenues, and opportunities for many.

These benefits are there for one reason: to encourage more people to invest in their communities by purchasing, building, and improving the homes and commercial buildings in the area. And real estate does much more than provide places to live and work; real estate as an industry creates more jobs than almost anything else. It’s one of the leading economic drivers in the country, creating jobs in construction, manufacturing, production, electronics, pest control, heating and air, plumbing, landscaping, and dozens of other industries. The more properties I own, the more jobs I help support throughout the US economy. And the more I save on taxes, the more money I have to buy more properties, keeping the cycle going and growing. Not taking advantage of the government’s tax incentives isn’t just bad personal financial management; it’s bad for the economy as a whole. They’re there for a reason. Use them.