How Las Vegas’ biggest real estate deals result in no transfer taxes

How Las Vegas’ biggest real estate deals result in no transfer taxes

Article brief provided by Las Vegas Review-Journal
  • Eli Segall, Las Vegas Review-Journal
May 14, 2022 4:44 PM
  • Eli Segall, Las Vegas Review-Journal

It was a blockbuster payday.

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The $4.2 billion cash sale of the Bellagio was, by all appearances, the most expensive purchase ever of a Las Vegas casino, and it could have generated a $21 million-plus windfall in real estate sales taxes. But when the famed megaresort traded from one powerhouse company to another in fall 2019, the tax bill didn’t amount to a dime.

It is far from alone.

Numerous high-priced deals in Southern Nevada – worth hundreds of millions or more than a billion dollars apiece – have been structured in ways that allowed the buyers and sellers to avoid paying real estate transfer taxes that support schools and low-income housing in Nevada, a Review-Journal investigation has found.