By Nathan Vinson, Attorney
English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley, LLP

If you receive a vacation home as a gift, you can exchange it for another property to avoid a big tax hit.
Receiving a home or significant piece of property as a gift may sound wonderful. And it is, in nearly every case.
But sometimes when you get a piece of property as a gift, it’s not quite what you want, or perhaps it is too much of a burden to handle. You may decide to sell it, or, you may find it more advantageous to do an exchange. That’s a strategy we recommend to clients on occasion to help avoid tax on a second home. That tax is usually at the more advantageous capital gain rate, but nevertheless, it is still tax dollars out of your pocket.
I’ll explain how it works.