I'm a relatively young CPA (eighth tax season) so maybe this is an old law from before my time, but it seems one of the most common misconceptions about the income tax is that you don't owe capital gains tax on the sale of real estate if you used the proceeds to purchase more real estate. At first I thought maybe it was a misunderstanding of either the casualty loss rules, or 1031 exchanges, or maybe even the personal residence exclusion. But it seems a lot of people believe this and it's uncomfortable enough breaking the news to people that they owe without them believing that they didn't because they bought another property. Any, ahem, older accountants that can shed light on this? I sure wish my clients would come see me when they're planning on selling something. Sigh. Was that just a rant disguised as a question?