This is true because:
The income of partnerships and LLCs (taxed as partnerships) is taxed directly to the partners and the LLC members. By contrast, a C corporation pays tax on its income and then the shareholders must pay tax again on the after-tax profits distributed by the corporation resulting in higher overall taxes.
While S corporations, unlike C corporations, are not taxable on their income, partnerships are still superior to S corporations because of the greater ability to deduct losses. Partners can deduct losses up to the aggregate amount they invest in the partnership plus their share of the partnership’s debt. By contrast, an S corporation shareholder may deduct losses only up to the amount that he or she actually invested in (or personally loaned to) the S corp. The is a big advantage because real estate ventures tend to generate tax losses in the early years even if they have positive cash flow.
Example: Assume Brad and Carl form a company to acquire a $1 million property with $100,000 contributed by each of Brad and Carl and with an $800,000 loan borrowed by the company. Assume further that in the first year, the company has $300,000 of losses (based on cost segregation and bonus depreciation). If the property was held in an S corporation, Brad and Carl could not deduct more than $100,000 each. However, if they held the property in a partnership, they could deduct up to the entire $300,000 of losses.
Partnerships also have greater flexibility in ownership structure than S corporations. For example, you cannot issue profits interests (aka promotes or carried interests) in an S corporation like you can in a partnership.
Bottom Line: Absent a specific reason for holding real estate in a corporation (and there are some), you will almost always be better off holding it in a partnership (or LLC taxed as a partnership).
“Just taught my kids about taxes by eating 38% of their ice cream.” — Conan O’Brien