45 Days, 180 Days and April 15: Your 1031 Calendar If You Sell a Hotel Before Year End

By Nathan Snyder, Editor · November 6, 2026

Featured image: Internal Revenue Service Building, Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C. Photo: Reynolds / Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

If you close on a hotel sale before year-end and plan a Section 1031 like-kind exchange, the calendar — not the purchase agreement — decides whether the deferral works. The IRS spells the deadlines out in the Instructions for Form 8824. Miss either window and the exchange fails.

This is a free explainer for hotel owners. Every timing rule below is taken from those IRS instructions. Ask your CPA and your QI (qualified intermediary) before you rely on any date for your own deal.

The Two Clocks the IRS Actually Runs

Under the Form 8824 instructions, a deferred exchange only stays on track if you meet both timing tests. The IRS states it this way in the Deferred Exchanges section:

“The replacement property for the exchange must be identified within 45 days after the property being given up is transferred. The replacement property must be received within 180 days, or by the due date of your tax return (including extensions), whichever is earlier.”

Line 6 of the same instructions repeats the receipt rule: you must receive the like-kind property by the earlier of (1) the 180th day after you transferred the property given up, or (2) the due date (including extensions) of your tax return for the year of that transfer.

In plain terms for you as a seller:

• Day 45: identify replacement property in writing under the Form 8824 Line 5 rules.
• Day 180 vs. return due date: close on the replacement by whichever comes first — day 180, or your return due date including extensions.

How Identification Has to Look on Paper

The Form 8824 instructions for Line 5 set out the written-identification conditions. The replacement property must be designated in writing as replacement property in a document you signed or in a written agreement signed by all parties. The description has to be clear and recognizable — for real property, a legal description, street address, or distinguishable name (the IRS example is “Mayfair Apartment Building”). That writing must be sent, no later than 45 days after you transferred the property given up, to the person required to transfer the replacement property to you or to another person involved in the exchange (other than a disqualified person), or all parties must sign the designating agreement within that same 45-day window.

If you receive the replacement property before day 45 ends, the instructions treat you as having met the identification requirement. Otherwise, day 45 is a hard stop — your QI may hold the letter, but you own the deadline.

Why a Late-2026 Hotel Sale Collides With April 15

Assume you are a calendar-year taxpayer whose 2026 return is due April 15, 2027, and you do not file an extension. The Form 8824 instructions make the receipt deadline the earlier of day 180 or that due date.

Count forward yourself. Day 180 from a transfer on October 17, 2026 is April 15, 2027 — the same day as the unextended return due date. Sell after October 17, 2026, and April 15, 2027 arrives before day 180. Without an extension, the IRS clock stops on April 15 even though you still have calendar days left on the 180-day count.

That is why a year-end hotel closing is not “plenty of time.” The return due date can cut the exchange short unless you extend the return and keep the QI timeline aligned.

Worked Example: Close November 15, 2026

Say you transfer your hotel on November 15, 2026. Counting from that transfer date:

• Identification deadline (day 45): December 30, 2026.
• Day 180: May 14, 2027.
• Unextended calendar-year due date: April 15, 2027.

Without an extension, April 15 comes first. You would have to receive the replacement property by April 15, 2027 — not May 14. File a timely extension and the Form 8824 instructions let the due-date prong move with it, so the earlier-of test can reach the full 180 days (here, May 14, 2027), provided every other 1031 requirement is met.

Put the identification letter on the QI calendar immediately, and ask your CPA whether extending the return is what unlocks the full 180 days.

Your Simple 1031 Calendar

Milestone	Rule (Form 8824 instructions)	Nov. 15, 2026 example
Transfer / relinquished property closes	Starts both clocks	Nov. 15, 2026
Identify replacement property	Within 45 days after transfer	By Dec. 30, 2026
Receive replacement property	Earlier of day 180 or return due date (incl. extensions)	April 15, 2027 without extension; May 14, 2027 if day 180 controls after a timely extension
File Form 8824	With the return for the year you transferred the property	With your 2026 return

Only Real Property Qualifies Now

The Form 8824 instructions are blunt about the post-2017 statute: for 2018 and later years, Section 1031 “applies only to exchanges of real property held for use in a trade or business or for investment,” other than real property held primarily for sale.

Personal property is outside that real-property-only rule. The instructions also discuss “other (non-like-kind) property” and, for certain deferred exchanges with a QI, “incidental personal property” that can travel with replacement real property under a 15% fair-market-value limitation. None of that turns FF&E into like-kind real property.

A hotel sale usually bundles real estate with FF&E and other personal property. That personal-property slice generally has to be allocated and taxed outside the 1031 deferral on the real property. Keep the purchase-price allocation, the QI paperwork, and Form 8824 aligned — and ask your CPA and your QI (qualified intermediary) how the allocation will show up on the return.

Owner Checklist Before You Close

1. Lock the transfer date on a calendar and count day 45 and day 180 from that exact date.
2. Compare day 180 to your return due date for the year of transfer, including whether you will extend.
3. Engage a QI before closing if you intend a deferred exchange; the Form 8824 instructions discuss QI safe-harbor treatment and what happens if timing fails.
4. Identify replacement property in writing within 45 days, meeting the Line 5 description rules (legal description, street address, or distinguishable name).
5. Separate real property from FF&E and other personal property in the deal allocation so only qualifying real property is treated as like-kind under the post-2017 rules.
6. Ask your CPA and your QI (qualified intermediary) to confirm the identification letter, the receipt deadline, the extension decision, and how Form 8824 will be filed with the return for the transfer year.

What This Means For Your Hotel…

If you are shopping a hotel sale into the fourth quarter, do not treat “180 days” as a soft target. On a calendar-year return due April 15, a transfer after October 17, 2026 runs into the unextended due date before day 180. Your identification clock is still only 45 days. Your replacement close has to clear the earlier-of test in the Form 8824 instructions. And only the real-property portion of a typical hotel deal is even eligible for 1031 treatment under the current statute the IRS summarizes in those instructions.

Build the calendar into the listing and PSA timeline now. If the buyer’s diligence or your replacement search needs the full 180 days, the extension conversation with your CPA belongs in the same week as the QI engagement — not in April.

The Bottom Line

Section 1031 still lets you defer gain on qualifying business or investment real property, but the Form 8824 instructions put hard stops on identification (45 days) and receipt (earlier of 180 days or the return due date, including extensions). For a late-2026 hotel sale, April 15 can beat day 180 unless you extend. Only real property qualifies under the post-2017 rules; FF&E and other personal property stay outside the deferral and need a clean allocation. Ask your CPA and your QI (qualified intermediary) to map your exact transfer date onto that IRS calendar before you close.

This is general information, not tax advice.

Sources and further reading

• IRS Instructions for Form 8824 — deferred-exchange timing (45-day identification; earlier of 180 days or return due date including extensions); Line 5 and Line 6; exchanges limited to real property for 2018 and later years; QI discussion; incidental personal property / other non-like-kind property notes