Depreciation Recapture Calculator

Depreciation Recapture Calculator — The Hidden 25% Tax

Most building sellers never hear about depreciation recapture — the 25% tax on every dollar you depreciated. See your recapture and full tax bill, then what a §453 structured installment sale defers.

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Illustrative only — real 2026 federal + California brackets, unrecaptured §1250 recapture at 25%, 3.8% NIIT. §453 modeled at a conditional 4.4% over 20 years. Not tax advice; your CPA signs off before you commit.
Why §453 wins — in plain English
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Pay the tax now, you only put 65¢ of every dollar to work. Structure it and the whole dollar keeps working — same rate, bigger pile.
At ~4.4% your $ roughly doubles to $ in about 16 years — the pay-now seller only doubles the smaller after-tax pile.
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Your full dollar stays working (not 65¢) and the gain is taxed in small yearly slices at lower rates — about $1.29 kept for every $1 the pay-now seller ends up with. That's the whole trick.
Before you read further

What is the tax bill on your property sale going to be?

Send me the sale price and rough basis and I'll email you the actual number within one business day — plus the Seller's Guide to §453. If it doesn't fit your deal, I'll tell you that plainly.

No retainer · no obligation · the carrier compensates the broker, not you.

Illustrative only, not tax advice — bring the numbers to your CPA, or send them the §453 guide built for accountants.

Hans Goldstein

Find out what your sale is really going to cost you in tax — and what you can do about it

No retainer. The carrier compensates the broker — not you.

Find out what your tax bill actually looks like before you sell — including the parts your CPA may not raise until the return is already being prepared.

Most people find out what they owe after the sale closes, when nothing can be changed. A short conversation now tells you the number, which layers apply to your situation, and which options are still open while the sale is still in front of you.

  • What you will actually owe — federal, the 3.8% surtax, recapture and your state
  • Which of those layers you can still do something about
  • Whether spreading the sale changes the number in your case
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Hans Goldstein · 317-463-6659 · Goldstein & Co. LLC · This is an educational conversation, not tax advice. Bring your CPA in before you file.

Run your specific numbers

The calculator runs your sale through real 2026 federal + state tax brackets and shows §453 savings vs lump sum side-by-side.

Run the calculator → 317-463-6659
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