Free Exit Tax Calculator: what you owe when you sell

By Kasing Ng, CPA, former Big 4 auditor

Most people expect to pay 20% on the profit when they sell. Then the return comes back higher, because a big part of the gain isn't appreciation at all. It's the depreciation you already deducted, coming back at higher rates. This splits your exit tax into the layers the IRS actually uses, shows what a 1031 really defers, and flags the case where you owe tax on a deal that lost money. No signup.

Property type?

Purchase price?

Expected sale price?

Year bought?

Year you sell?

Did the deal use a cost segregation study??

Federal bracket in the year you sell?

State income-tax rate (%)?

How do you hold it??

Advanced: your share, debt, suspended losses, selling costs

Your ownership share (%)?

Selling costs (% of price)?

Loan payoff at sale?

Equity you put in?

Suspended passive losses on this deal?

Cost-seg short-life share (%)?

Land share of purchase price (%)?

Land-improvement share of cost-seg (%)?

Estimated tax due on this sale

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Where the tax comes from

Layer	Gain	Rate	Tax

Cash in hand after loan payoff and tax

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What a 1031 exchange would change

Want the real number on your actual deal? This is a fast estimate on whole years and default allocations. A Deal Tax Projection models your real depreciation schedule, your passive-loss history, the 1031 or hold-longer alternatives, and the after-tax IRR you actually keep, reviewed by a former Big 4 auditor with no cost-seg study or exchange to sell you. See the Deal Tax Projection →

Buying, not selling? Try the free after-tax cost-seg estimator. Want to see a full read? Get the sample Deal Tax Projection (PDF).

Estimate only, not tax advice. Depreciation is estimated in whole years with no mid-month convention, straight-line on the building over 27.5 or 39 years, and, if you used cost segregation, bonus depreciation at the rate for the year you bought with the remainder straight-line over 5 or 15 years. Capital improvements made during the hold are not included. All depreciation recapture is assumed recognized ahead of appreciation, and personal property is assumed fully recaptured at ordinary rates; an appraisal-based allocation of the sale price can lower that. Unrecaptured §1250 gain is taxed at your ordinary rate or 25%, whichever is lower; long-term capital gain at 20% for the 35% and 37% brackets and 15% below (part of the 35% bracket is actually 15%). State tax is a flat add-on to every layer and does not model state-specific rules. Suspended losses are valued at your full marginal rate. The 1031 view assumes all proceeds and debt are replaced and no boot; cost-seg personal property is treated as outside the exchange unless state law makes it real property, a question for counsel. Foreclosure, deed-in-lieu, short sale, installment sales and related-party sales follow different rules. No engagement is created by using this tool. Kasing Ng, CPA — California License 139270.