What business will never go out of business?

What business will never be shut down by the government?

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789. He knew the business I’m talking about…

The business of government tax collection – the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – will never go out of business. Your business may succeed or fail… But the IRS will live on.

[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]And some investors are getting the IRS to pay them 7.4% a year…

I know what you’re thinking…

The IRS you know takes one-third of your income each year.

It doesn’t pay you an income – right?

But they’re one and the same.

It’s the huge opportunity that we have today…

Who does the IRS pay when it rents an office building? Is it the federal government? No, actually – the IRS has a landlord. It’s called Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV).

GOV is a business that rents the buildings it owns to the government. And the IRS is GOV’s biggest tenant (measured by square footage). The next-biggest tenant is U.S. Customs & Immigration. Together, they make up over 20% of GOV’s rental income.

None of these “businesses” are going out of business. These departments of the federal government will be around a decade and even a century from now.

GOV takes advantage of it by becoming the government’s landlord. And smartly, it pays no income taxes on the rent it earns…

You see, GOV is a real estate investment trust (REIT). As a REIT, it has a special tax status, where it doesn’t have to pay income taxes on the rent it collects. Instead, it passes along nearly all the rental income it earns to you, in the form of dividends. As long as it passes its rent along to you, it can keep this special tax status.

As I write, GOV pays a hefty 7.4% dividend. That’s an incredible dividend in our zero-percent world. And thanks to GOV’s long-term contracts, it’s safe!

You see, GOV is successfully locking in very long-term leases at rates above 8% – to government tenants that are not likely to default. GOV also protects itself by building in inflation adjustments and property tax adjustments if either of those gets out of line as well. GOV has it covered. Your dividend is safe.

Investors should bid up shares of GOV going forward. Its 7.4% dividend is very attractive in a world of zero-percent interest on bank deposits.

The other thing GOV has going for it is that “cap rates” on commercial real estate are near 5.5%. The “cap rate” is the annual return on an investment building from your rent – after expenses. In short, it is the rent – after expenses – divided by the building’s cost. (It is the most commonly quoted figure in rental real estate.)

If cap rates are near 5.5%, investors should be willing to pay more for GOV’s portfolio that has a built-in yield of 7.4%. Investors will push the share price of GOV up. At a 5.5% cap rate, the fair value of GOV’s shares would be 30% higher than today.

Going forward, GOV should have no problem paying – or even increasing – its dividend. That’s a big reason why the company is a buy in my True Wealth newsletter.

So if you’re looking for a safe place to earn high yields, how about making the IRS pay you 7.4% a year?

Good investing,

Steve

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Source: DailyWealth