Benefits of Installment Sales Method
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011The most common instances of installment sales can be seen where large sums of money are involved. Real estate deals generally follow the installment sales method as it happens to be a win-win deal for both parties involved in this transaction. The buyer gets the keys to the property and has his expenditure broken up into easy annual installments, while the seller gets his total tax liability deferred to the number of years over which the sale is carried out. Read on for more on home buying.
There is one basic requirement for a sale to qualify under the installment sales method. Basically, for a sale to be an installment sale, it needs to have at least one installment to be paid in the next tax year. So if you have an agreement where your buyer pays a fixed installment each year for say, the next 5 years, only then does it count as an installment sale. The installment sales method cannot be applied if all the installments are paid within a year.
The installment sales method starts with the agreement of sale. First, the seller and buyer agree to transfer the property and that the seller will be compensated in equal installments. Of course, for the seller’s magnanimity of letting the buyer pay in installments, he will also charge an interest to the total amount payable. With that deal done, the buyer will possess the property and continue to make the yearly payments to the seller.
In the sellers books of accounting, instead of recording the complete sale, he will account for each individual installment. Thus, the amount received as income as can be seen in his books is a lot lesser than it would be, had he recorded the entire sale amount. Hence since his income is lesser, so is his tax liability. In this way, the seller by using the installment sales method, ensures that he doesn’t have to pay tax for the money he hasn’t yet received. Read on for more on real estate investment.
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