All of us remember the TV series with the dolphin FLIPPER

Having recently seen a one of the episodes, it reminded me of those folks who are really good at the 4 F s. Find a house, Fix the house, Find a buyer, and Flip the house, for a large profit. When you do this say one time per year and you have very little hands on work you would be considered an INVESTOR so the sale of the house if under 12 months would be ordinary income ( short term gain) but if it took over 12 months to do the 4 F s then it would be long term gain and that is the good income as it s taxed at 0-20% IRS and 5% NC. If you do more than 1 per year or do most of the work yourself or supervise it you more likely are a business and would need to pay SECA (self employment tax) on the profit….but this opens the possibility to then have a tax DEFERRED 401k of SIMPLE IRA or TRADITIONAL IRA for you and spouse and virtually wipe out the profit. If you have any kids that help you with the renovation (great way to start off a child in wealth accumulation and tax avoidance and deferral). You can pay them if they work hard up to 19000 and use that deduction save about $5000 in tax while they may not pay ANY tax if they put $6500 into an IRA. AND you can still claim them as a dependent in most cases.