Path 01
A property purchase or major renovation is being scoped
Basis, component, demolition, and placed-in-service records can be planned early.
Likely discussion: Transaction Planning with Depreciation & Basis
Prepare this pathServices
Transaction Planning
Pre-Construction Tax Planning
Bring tax planning into design and budgeting before construction decisions lock away depreciation, energy-credit, and documentation options.
Meet Jamie PopeWatch Jamie on this topicFounder-led guidance, ready when you are.- Best fit
- Developers, owners, construction teams
- Planning window
- Site planning, design, and construction budgeting
- Typical output
- Tax-sensitive design and documentation checklist
Start with the decision context
Which pre-construction decision can still be shaped?
Use the project event that is still flexible to connect design, budget, documentation, and tax planning.
These paths prepare a conversation. They do not provide tax, legal, valuation, or eligibility conclusions.
Path 02
Energy or technical design choices are active
Certification, incentive, and technical-project evidence may still be preserved.
Likely discussion: Credits & Incentives before construction locks in
Prepare this pathPath 03
Financing or disposition timing affects the project
Draws, phases, ownership, and expected exit decisions need one timeline.
Likely discussion: Construction planning with transaction timing
Prepare this pathIn plain English
Pre-Construction Planning: Tax Savings Are Designed In, Not Found Later
By the time a building opens, most of its tax story is already written, what depreciates in 5 years instead of 39, which incentives it captured, whether the records exist to prove any of it. Bringing the tax work in while the drawings are still drawings changes those answers at almost no cost. After that, every change order gets more expensive. Paper is cheap. Concrete is permanent.
Related guide
Real Estate Tax Credit Programs
A guide to real estate tax credit topics including 45L, 179D, R&D credits, historic rehabilitation incentives, and current energy-incentive timing windows.
View resourceDecision fit
Use this lane before a purchase, sale, reinvestment, or project decision narrows the available after-tax options.
JPOPE frames the service around the property decision first, then packages the technical findings for the owner, CPA, advisor, or deal team that needs to act on them. The aim is simple: identify the minimum tax legally owed, preserve every supportable opportunity, and turn the first review into a clear next step before the window closes.
A transaction is being modeled and tax impact could influence structure or timing.
Ownership, financing, or project choices are still flexible enough to plan around.
The client needs a plain-English comparison of options, including 1031 alternatives, Opportunity Zones, or reinvestment timing, before committing.
Visual planning lane
The decision path should be clear before the document request starts.
Owners and advisors should be able to see why this lane matters, what facts drive the answer, and how the final output travels back into the CPA or advisor conversation.
Transaction model
Use the deal window before structure and taxes lock in.
Transaction planning connects purchase, sale, exchange, basis, debt, and reinvestment decisions before the closing file becomes history. For Pre-Construction Tax Planning, the practical window is site planning, design, and construction budgeting and the expected output is tax-sensitive design and documentation checklist.
01
Deal
Name the transaction choice
Purchase, sale, exchange, reinvestment, or capital-gain exposure is defined while options remain.
02
Structure
Check constraints
Entity, basis, debt, timing, and ownership goals shape the available after-tax paths.
03
Compare
Show the tradeoffs
The planning model clarifies which path is useful, supportable, and worth taking to the advisory team.
TEAM
Handoff
Send the next move
The CPA, attorney, broker, and owner get a shared planning summary before commitment.
Best before signing, closing, sale, exchange, reinvestment, or exit decisions become fixed.
Design-phase leverage
Bring tax planning into the project before the drawings and budget lock.
Pre-construction planning gives owners, developers, and construction teams a chance to preserve depreciation, credit, energy, and documentation opportunities before decisions are baked into the project. JPOPE helps tax strategy show up while it can still influence the build.
- Best timing
- Design and budgeting
- Planning levers
- Depreciation, credits, records
- Output
- Tax-sensitive checklist
What Jamie checks
Use this lane before a purchase, sale, reinvestment, or project decision narrows the available after-tax options.
Taxpayer context
Developers, owners, construction teams
Who owns, advises, or acts on the planning answer.
Record support
Source file and documents
The first records that support the position.
Timing window
Site planning, design, and construction budgeting
When the facts still leave room for a better answer.
Advisor output
CPA-ready output
The format needed for CPA, owner, or advisor review.
Review signal
Design, scope, budget, energy, and placed-in-service decisions that affect tax outcomes.
Review signal
Documentation practices that can support later cost segregation, 179D, 45L, R&D, or rehabilitation credit claims.
Review signal
Owner, contractor, engineer, and CPA coordination before construction starts moving fast.
Review signal
Budget categories, bid packages, and construction records that should be structured for later tax review.
Review signal
Design choices that may preserve depreciation, energy, credit, or documentation options before value engineering begins.
Review signal
A project-file checklist that keeps tax-support records from becoming an after-the-fact reconstruction project.
Owner questions
- Could design decisions preserve depreciation or credit opportunities?
- Are construction records being captured in a way that supports future tax work?
- Should tax planning influence the project budget before final approval?
- Will the project team know which invoices, scopes, plans, and certifications matter later?
- Can the owner compare tax-sensitive choices before drawings, bids, and contracts harden?
- Would a pre-construction file reduce CPA cleanup after the project is placed in service?
Ready to test the fit?
Bring this planning lane into a focused first review.
A complete file is not required. Start with the property decision, the date controlling it, and the records already available.
Direct answers
What owners and advisors usually need to know first.
Use these answers to decide whether the timing, records, and advisory handoff point to a deeper planning conversation.
When should Pre-Construction Tax Planning be reviewed?
Review Pre-Construction Tax Planning during site planning, design, and construction budgeting. A transaction is being modeled and tax impact could influence structure or timing.
What information should be organized first?
Start with Design, scope, budget, energy, and placed-in-service decisions that affect tax outcomes; Documentation practices that can support later cost segregation, 179D, 45L, R&D, or rehabilitation credit claims. JPOPE uses those facts to decide whether the position is documented, time-sensitive, and ready for CPA review.
What does JPOPE typically deliver?
The usual output is tax-sensitive design and documentation checklist, packaged so ownership and the advisory team can understand the tax value, supporting evidence, and next action.
Defined advisor role: JPOPE organizes the CRE-specific facts, analysis, and support file. The owner's CPA, attorney, engineer, appraiser, or other responsible professional remains in the review and implementation path when their judgment is required.
Pre-construction videoPre-Construction Tax PlanningPlay service video
Design timing
Construction records
Placed-in-service plan
Video follow-through
Turn the primer into a cleaner advisor conversation.
Use the video to frame what records, timing, and output should be ready before deeper analysis starts.
- Planning lane
- Transaction Planning
- Review handoff
- CPA-ready next step
Service signal
Video context plus planning data for this lane.
The pre-construction video is the clearest “before breaking ground” message: design, budget, energy, and documentation choices can still shape tax savings.
Decision leverage
92%
Tax planning matters most before structure, sale terms, or project budgets narrow.
Scenario clarity
87%
Owners need side-by-side after-tax choices before committing.
Deal-team handoff
85%
The analysis should travel cleanly to CPA, broker, attorney, or lender.
Transaction Planning
- Planning window
- Site planning, design, and construction budgeting
- Output
- Tax-sensitive design and documentation checklist
What you will learn
- Design timing
- Construction records
- Placed-in-service plan
How the work moves
A clear path from discovery to advisor-ready action.
The sequence keeps the owner question, technical review, and CPA handoff connected so the page reads as a path rather than separate service claims.
Step 1
Discover
Clarify the property, ownership, transaction, and timing facts behind the tax value.
Step 2
Analyze
Review records for deductions, credits, valuation issues, basis, and planning impact.
Step 3
Strategize
Develop tax-sensitive design and documentation checklist with the context needed by the CPA and advisor team.
Step 4
Support
Help the next conversation move cleanly with the CPA, advisor, broker, or ownership team.
Related resources
Keep the next conversation moving.
Start hereGuideCredits & Incentives
Real Estate Tax Credit Programs
A guide to real estate tax credit topics including 45L, 179D, R&D credits, historic rehabilitation incentives, and current energy-incentive timing windows.
View resource
Applied proofCase StudyCost Segregation
Catch-Up Depreciation Case Study: Shopping Center Portfolio
A shopping-center portfolio case study on how Form 3115 catch-up depreciation turned long-trapped deductions into current planning capital.
View resource
Start hereChecklistCost Segregation
Cost Segregation Readiness Checklist
A practical pre-study checklist for organizing records before a cost segregation review.
View resourceStart with fit
Bring the property facts. JPOPE will map the right next step.
A short fit review can confirm whether this service area is the right starting point or whether another planning lane should come first.