Buying Real Estate to Offset Short term Capital Gains

[Adam Jaggers]

Hello BP!

I'm in a somewhat interesting tax situation this year and I thought I'd get some feedback on my strategy (having never done it before). I'll be selling a non-real estate asset (portion of a business) for a significant sum. This is going to be considered short term capital gains. 

My plan is to invest the ENTIRE sale amount into a big deal. Then do a depreciation study (with acceleration) to claim as large of a loss as possible on the first year. I'm hoping to claim as much as the entire down payment (my entire profit), thus avoiding any tax on the money that would have otherwise been considered regular income and taxed at that gross 38% mark.

Does this seem crazy? I'd much rather invest that 38% than give it to uncle sam :)