Loophole Pays Off On Upscale Buildings

[GeorgeGist]

Two years ago, after leaving her job as Vice President Cheney's spokeswoman to join a lobbying firm, Juleanna Glover Weiss bought a new house. Weiss and her husband, lobbyist Jeffrey Weiss, settled on a century-old, 10-bedroom home sandwiched between foreign embassies in Kalorama. Today it is one of the most prominent party venues in Washington.

The Georgian-style mansion came with 11-foot ceilings, vintage chandeliers, inlaid hardwood floors -- and a $1.5 million price tag. After closing on the house, the Weisses signed papers promising that they would not alter its outward appearance without first obtaining permission. They "donated" that pledge, known as a historic facade easement, to a nonprofit preservation trust. That allowed the Weisses to seek a federal income tax write-off for the estimated cash value of the gift.

Easement donors in D.C. usually write off about 11 percent of the value of their homes. That means owners of a $1.5 million mansion can claim tax breaks of $165,000 or more.

Such tax deductions are increasingly common although the District already bars unapproved and historically inaccurate changes in the facades of homes in the city's many historic districts. As a result, easement donors largely are agreeing not to change something that they cannot change anyway...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57445-2004Dec11.html?nav=most_emailed

It's good to be rich,