Excess Insurance Proceeds - Taxable or Not

[Andrew L.]

Hello,

I own a commercial mixed-use property and recently had a fire damage part of the building, mainly on the ground floor commercial space. The rest of the building was only slightly damaged and is currently rented. The property is insured and we are close to receiving our final claim amount from the insurance company. Assuming we can repair the property back to a rent-ready state for less than the total amount of proceeds we receive, is there any way to defer paying taxes on the excess insurance proceeds, possibly by putting that money into another property? 

I have spoken with multiple CPAs and haven't been able to get a concrete answer. I know there is something called an involuntary conversion that would allow us to defer taxes but I don't know if that would be applicable here since we are not replacing the property entirely. I also know that we can deduct the amount we put back into the property in repairs, but I am really talking about any excess proceeds here. 

For example, we receive $100k in total insurance proceeds and put 70k back into the property . We can deduct the 70k in repair expenses, but now have 30k in excess proceeds. Is there a way to defer paying taxes on the 30k (hypothetical numbers)? 

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.