Leasehold Tax Question

[Aaron Murdock]

So I am new here and there seems to be a little bit of info on leaseholds on here but not much detail. I know this is somewhat unique to Hawaii.

Basically I am buying a condo with almost 34 years left on the lease, currently there are 2 leases (sandwich and master lease). I am trying to buy the sandwich lease which will significantly reduce monthly lease payment, but consent from the fee owner is being held up by the lawyers. This should work its self out shortly but if it doesn’t I will be paying both lease payments for an unknown number of months.

My question is does anyone know if long-term lease payments are tax deductible if I live in the unit? I know the IRS treats leaseholds with more than 30yrs left as real estate holdings so maybe that works for me. Someone told me they are deductible if you are renting the unit out, which would make sense since a business that leases a building would deduct that lease as an expenses.

Thanks for any help.