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.
Which are you?
Each calculator runs on the actual IRS code for that scenario: §453 for property/business sales, Childs v. Commissioner for contingency-fee attorneys, §104(a)(2) for physical-injury plaintiffs. Pick wrong and the math is wrong.
I'm selling an appreciated asset.
Property, a business, raw land, a syndication stake, anything sitting on a big capital gain.
The problem: California stacks federal LTCG (15 to 20%) + NIIT (3.8%) + state ordinary income (up to 13.3%) on the gain. A $2M gain at closing can mean $700K+ to the IRS and FTB in one year.
The structure: §453 Structured Installment Sale. The carrier-funded annuity spreads the gain across 5 to 40 years instead of compressing it into Year 1. Same dollars, lower brackets, deferral, IRMAA control.
- Sell once, get paid in monthly checks for 5 to 40 years, owed by an assignment company and funded by a fixed annuity from a highly rated insurer (A or better by A.M. Best or equivalent)
- IRS taxes each check as it arrives, not the whole sale up front
- Must be structured before the close of escrow
IRC §453 · §453B · Treas. Reg. §15A.453-1
I'm an attorney with a contingent fee about to hit.
Personal-injury, plaintiffs' firm, class-action lead/liaison counsel, ERISA / §1988 statutory fees, mass tort.
The problem: A big verdict drops the entire contingent fee in Year 1 as ordinary income. Top bracket, all of it. The 1099 in January decides whether the win actually feels like one.
The structure: Structured attorney fees under Childs v. Commissioner. Fee terms fixed in the settlement before the fee is payable, funded by an annuity and paid over years. The Tax Court (1994) found no constructive receipt and no §83 property on those facts; the 11th Circuit affirmed without published opinion (1996).
- Designed before the settlement papers are signed
- You pick the schedule; an assignment company owes the payments, funded by an annuity from a highly rated insurer
- Tax Court precedent since 1994; the IRS reads it narrowly (AM 2022-007)
Childs v. Comm'r, 103 T.C. 634 (1994), aff'd, 89 F.3d 856 (11th Cir. 1996)
I have a client (or am the plaintiff) with a physical-injury settlement.
PI, wrongful-death, med mal, product liability with physical injury, premises, motor vehicle, FELA, Jones Act, workers' comp.
The opportunity: §104(a)(2) is the broadest tax exclusion in the Code: every dollar of compensatory damages for personal physical injury is excluded from gross income. Federally, by every state, clear of NIIT, clear of Medicare.
The structure: §104 Structured Settlement with a §130 qualified assignment. The lump-sum equivalent funds a carrier annuity; every payment (principal AND growth) arrives tax-free, for the entire schedule.
- Only annuity in the U.S. tax code where every penny is excluded from gross income
- Same statutory exclusion that makes the underlying recovery tax-free
- Designed before the settlement papers are signed
IRC §104(a)(2) · §130 · Rev. Rul. 79-220
Pick up the phone. Two-minute triage, no commitment.
The three structures overlap less than you'd think. Once we know whether the gain is from a property sale, a contingent fee, or a personal-injury recovery, the right calculator is obvious in 60 seconds. We'll point you at the right one and tell you if it pencils for your numbers.
213-414-2808 · Call Hans