Wonder how many people are going to flip their Model 3?

[Drivin]

Most definitions of it mention profit:
"DEFINITION of 'Flipping'
A type of real estate investment strategy in which an investor purchases properties with the goal of reselling them for a profit."
Flipping Definition | Investopedia
"Flipping is a term used primarily in the United States to describe purchasing a revenue-generating asset and quickly reselling (or "flipping") it for profit."
Flipping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While presumably a "flipper" may sometimes acquire a property and overestimate its value and end up not making a profit, the situation described by sports4eva115 clearly does not fall under this.

It is irrelevant since the IRS condition is that they intended to resell it, it is not a "no flipping" rule. He clearly was planning on reselling it (for $0 profit) from the beginning.

As far as the definition goes, he his doing this a favor for his brother.
He is profiting from any goodwill that creates.
If he didn't profit from the experience in some way, he should be willing to do this for anyone.

 

[Thomas Edison]

Wouldn't just gifting it to him solve the problem?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Hopefully all this discussion doesn't apply to title transfer? for ex if I reserved for my brother who was out of the country, then when the vehicles are delivered we go to the DMV and have a title transfer for $0 (excluding fees), that's not totally abominable right?

I feel the need to expand on my response given the discussion of if this counts as a sale.

Given you are in California, make sure you follow the guidelines and checklist here and get the use tax and smog exemption for transfer to family member.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/vr/family

Your brother would be paying no additional tax.

However, far better way when the time comes is to contact Tesla to request a transfer of your reservation to your brother. The agreement says this: "Your Reservation is not transferable or assignable to another party without the prior written approval of Tesla." So it would be worthwhile to ask if the reservation can be transferred to your immediate family, so you don't have to go through the whole process of title transfer. Even if they don't approve, at least you can try to get them to help with the title transfer.

 

[stopcrazypp]

It is irrelevant since the IRS condition is that they intended to resell it, it is not a "no flipping" rule. He clearly was planning on reselling it (for $0 profit) from the beginning.

As far as the definition goes, he his doing this a favor for his brother.
He is profiting from any goodwill that creates.
If he didn't profit from the experience in some way, he should be willing to do this for anyone.

He is just doing a immediate family transfer, not selling it though. If he was to do something like this for a stranger (or if he is a car dealer; the family exemption does not apply to car dealers) it might be an issue, but that's not the case here.

In the IRS case, I don't see how an IRS auditor or a judge would reasonably say this violated the provision. He might be liable for gift tax however (depending on where he is on the allowed exemption).