alt Hacker NewsMy father in law was an IRS Revenue Agent. His quip was that about 20-30% of the civilian economy has tax avoidance as a primary business objective. Real estate is probably the greatest example.
Since financial engineering is in many ways more essential than the actual business. His best example was a chain hotel. In the majority of cases, a typical hotel is a tax vehicle that happens to rent rooms. So no wonder everything becomes a bank. :)
A typical chain hotel (by which I assume you mean a Marriott/Hyatt/Hilton/IHG/Choice/etc brand) is a franchised “small” business.
The franchisee typically pays 10% to 20% royalty to the franchisor (the aforementioned companies). Otherwise, they rent hotel rooms and pay staff to clean them and rent them again.
What is the tax play? That the hotel owner can 1031 into bigger and better hotels? Anyone who owns real estate can do that.