MARK KOHLERMain Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, LLC · Owner at Main Street Professionals, LLC

The "Lazy 1031" Tax Loophole for Crypto 🤫

10 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:41

In this segment, Mark Kohler introduces a tax strategy he calls the "lazy 1031," which adapts the real‑estate 1031 exchange concept for cryptocurrency gains. Since crypto cannot be directly exchanged tax‑free, the approach is to sell the crypto, recognize the gain, and immediately reinvest the proceeds into income‑producing or depreciable assets such as Airbnb properties, equipment leasing, or business equipment that qualifies for bonus depreciation. By doing so, the taxpayer creates a large write‑off that can offset the realized crypto gain, effectively reducing or eliminating the tax liability. Kohler illustrates the method with a concrete example: a $200,000 crypto sale yielding a $100,000 gain, where $100,000 is used to purchase equipment for leasing, generating a sizable depreciation deduction.

Chapters

Holy crap, I created a write-off more than $100,000. And so that's an offsetting strategy. The lazy 1031. You can 1031 real estate, buy a— sell a property, buy one of equal or greater value, no tax. Can't do that with crypto. But the lazy 1031 says, I'm going to sell that crypto, take that gain, and go create a write-off. I'm going to go buy an Airbnb. I'm going to go buy equipment leasing. I'm going to go buy more equipment for my business and bonus depreciate. But if I've got that $200,000 proceeds, $100,000 gain, freaking A, I could invest $100 grand of that into a piece of equipment and be leasing it out, buying some real estate, get bonus depreciation.