What Happens to Your Tax Bill When You Sell the Farm? DST Strategy & More.

What Happens to Your Tax Bill When You Sell the Farm? DST Strategy & More.

From The National Land Podcast by National Land Realty

June 1, 2026 · 59 min · Season 3 · Episode 178

About this episode

This episode discusses tax-efficient strategies for landowners selling their property, featuring insights from experts Joe Michaletz and Mike O'Toole.

Forty percent of the land in this country is expected to change hands by 2035. Most of the people holding it have no idea how much of that wealth they are about to hand to the IRS. Joe Michaletz and Mike O'Toole, CEO and principal at Discipline Advisors, have spent decades helping farmers, ranchers and land owners exit their real estate in the most tax-efficient way possible. In this conversation they break down the full toolkit, starting with 1031 exchanges and the most common mistakes people make going into them, including the debt replacement test that catches landowners off guard more than almost anything else. They walk through Delaware Statutory Trusts in real depth, how they differ from REITs, why diversification inside a DST portfolio matters as much as it does anywhere else, and what the 721 UPREIT path actually means and when it is and is not a good idea. The conversation also covers charitable remainder unitrusts, a tax elimination strategy for farm equipment, livestock and grain that most landowners have never heard of, and how one dairy farmer moved 6.5 million dollars of cattle and equipment into a CRUT, sold it with zero tax, and funded a lifetime income stream in…

People in this episode

Guests: Joe Michaletz, Mike O'Toole

Topics covered

  • tax strategies
  • land ownership
  • 1031 exchanges
  • Delaware Statutory Trusts
  • charitable remainder unitrusts
  • farm transition

Keywords

  • tax bill
  • farm sale
  • wealth transfer
  • IRS
  • debt replacement test
  • REITs
  • diversification
  • CRUT
  • farm equipment
  • livestock

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Discipline Advisors, National Land Realty

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