tailieunhanh - Investor Bulletin: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

Real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) have been around for more than fifty years. Congress established REITs in 1960 to allow individual investors to invest in large-scale, income-producing real estate. REITs provide a way for individual investors to earn a share of the income produced through commercial real estate ownership – without actually having to go out and buy commercial real estate. What is a REIT? A REIT, generally, is a company that owns – and typically operates – income-producing real estate or real estate-related assets. The income-producing real estate assets owned by a REIT may include office buildings, shopping. | Investor Bulletin Real Estate Investment Trusts REITs Real estate investment trusts REITs have been around for more than fifty years. Congress established REITs in 1960 to allow individual investors to invest in large-scale income-producing real estate. REITs provide a way for individual investors to earn a share of the income produced through commercial real estate ownership - without actually having to go out and buy commercial real estate. What is a REIT A REIT generally is a company that owns - and typically operates - income-producing real estate or real estate-related assets. The income-producing real estate assets owned by a REIT may include office buildings shopping malls apartments hotels resorts self-storage facilities warehouses and mortgages or loans. Most REITs specialize in a single type of real estate - for example apartment communities. There are retail REITs office REITs residential REITs healthcare REITs and industrial REITs to name a few. What distinguishes REITs from other real estate companies is that a REIT must acquire and develop its real estate properties primarily to operate them as part of its own investment portfolio as opposed to reselling those properties after they have been developed. How to Qualify as a REIT To qualify as a REIT a company must have the bulk of its assets and income connected to real estate investment and must distribute at least 90 percent of its taxable income to shareholders annually in the form of dividends. A company that qualifies as a REIT is allowed to deduct from its corporate taxable income all of the dividends that it pays out to its shareholders. Because of this special tax treatment most REITs pay out at least 100 percent of their taxable income to their shareholders and therefore owe no corporate tax. In addition to paying out at least 90 percent of its taxable income annually in the form of shareholder dividends a REIT must Be an entity that would be taxable as a corporation but for its REIT status Be