Deferred Sales Trust Calculator: Fees and Risk Included
A Deferred Sales Trust gives you §453-style deferral wrapped in a promoter's trust. You pay a fee every year and carry audit exposure that no IRS ruling backs. See the real cost, then compare a clean §453 structured installment sale.
What is the tax bill on your sale going to be?
Send me the sale price and rough basis. Within one business day I'll email you the actual number and the Seller's Guide to §453. If it doesn't fit your deal, I'll tell you that plainly.
No retainer · no obligation. Hans Goldstein, a licensed insurance agent (CA Insurance License #4273294), will contact you and may discuss insurance products, including annuities.
Illustrative only, not tax advice. Bring the numbers to your CPA, or send them the §453 guide built for accountants.
Does the IRS approve Deferred Sales Trusts?
No. The IRS has issued no revenue ruling, revenue procedure or regulation approving or banning the Deferred Sales Trust by name; it relies on the general installment-sale rules of IRC §453. Private letter rulings cited by promoters were issued to other taxpayers and are not precedent. The calculator models the tax and the fees; it cannot model the risk that a particular trust is recharacterized on audit. Read the deferred sales trust IRS ruling question and what Deferred Sales Trust fees add up to before you rely on the number.
New to the structure itself? Start with how a Deferred Sales Trust works, what it risks, and the §453 alternative.
Find out what your sale is really going to cost you in tax, and what you can do about it
No retainer. On a funded structure, the insurer pays a one-time commission of about 4% of the amount structured to the brokerage firm that places it (Hans’s share is about 2.4%; no trail). It is built into the annuity pricing, not a separate fee.
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
Hans Goldstein · 213-414-2808 · Hans Goldstein: Tax & Exit Planning · This is an educational conversation, not tax advice. Bring your CPA in before you file.
Hans Goldstein, a licensed insurance agent (CA Insurance License #4273294), will contact you and may discuss insurance products, including annuities.
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 → 213-414-2808