Investment Property Sale Tax Question

[Darsh Patel]

Hi Everyone! 

I sold 4 properties in 2022. The total net proceeds to me from the sales was $85K because I had loans on all 4 properties. I spoke with my CPA and he said that I would have to pay taxes on the difference from my sale price and the original purchase price of each property. Even though I had loans on all 4 properties. This for some reason doesn't seem right to me because I am not seeing all of that cash. To give an actual example. I bought one of the properties for 99K in 2017. I refinanced it with a loan balance of $140K early in 2022 and then I sold it for $170K in October 2022. So, does this mean I would have to pay taxes on 71K (Sale price-original purchase)? Or just $30K (sale price-current loan balance)?