Tax reductions and tax deductions are both benefits of cost segregation. However, it would be inaccurate to term this a tax shelter. The IRS has written a manual titled Audit Techniques Guide that delineates methods to establish depreciation schedules and increase tax reductions.
Tax shelter is a moniker that implies a scheme designed to avoid taxes. Some tax shelters were legal and some were clearly illegal. Most of the tax shelters focused exclusively on tax benefits and did not have an economic basis. There is no IRS documentation defining proper methods for implementation of tax shelters.
Tax shelters included activity with the purchase and sale of stock, cattle, real estate (typically high leveraged) and oil and gas. These tax shelters often involved economic activity with a questionable or inaccurate interpretation of the law. In some cases, they involved a questionable economic activity with an accurate interpretation of the law. In other cases, there was no meaningful economic activity associated with the tax shelter.






