Can I change my identification list after day 45?

Until midnight on day 45 you may rewrite the list as often as you want

The regulation gives you the right outright: “an identification of replacement property may be revoked at any time before the end of the identification period” (Reg. §1.1031(k)-1(c)(6)). It sets no limit on how many times you use it, and it charges nothing for using it.

A cancellation has to look like the notice it cancels. It must be a written document you sign, sent before the deadline “to the person to whom the identification of the replacement property was sent”, so a message that reaches a different party leaves the original name in place.

First American Exchange reduces that to one working rule: a revocation “must be sent to the same person or company to whom the original identification was delivered.” Ask your intermediary for its revocation form the same day you decide, and send the cancellation and the new name together.

A cancelled name stops counting toward the three-property limit only if you cancelled it on paper

Names you revoke properly are ignored when the three-property and 200 percent limits are tested, which is exactly what makes mid-period changes safe (Reg. §1.1031(k)-1(c)(4)(iii)).

The regulation's Example 6 shows it working. The exchanger names three parcels on June 21, adds two more on June 24, then hand-delivers a signed revocation of the first two on June 28; five names become three, and all three survive the deadline.

Example 7 shows it failing. There the exchanger tried to drop two of four names by telephone, the oral cancellation counted for nothing, and the surviving list of $310,000 against a $100,000 sale blew past the $200,000 ceiling, so the regulation treats the taxpayer “as if B did not identify any replacement property” even though two of the parcels were bought. The arithmetic behind that ceiling is on how many properties you can identify.

From day 46 you may buy only what the list said at midnight

Once the identification period closes the list is frozen in both directions: nothing can be added, and nothing already on it can be struck off. IPX1031 states the industry position plainly: “No changes or revocations may be made to the Identification Notice after the end of the Identification Period.”

Closing on a property that was never named is not a cure. First American Exchange treats this as one of the few black-and-white areas in the rules: “You must acquire a property that was identified within the 45-day identification period for your exchange to qualify for tax deferral.” Property that fails the identification test is treated as not of a like kind under Reg. §1.1031(k)-1(b)(1)(i), so the proceeds spent on it are taxable.

Hardship does not move the date either. FS-2008-18 rules out relief for personal circumstances and leaves only presidentially declared disasters, and what such a declaration actually reaches is on can I get an extension.

Taking part of a named property is the one change the rules still allow after day 45

What you receive has to be “substantially the same property as identified” (Reg. §1.1031(k)-1(d)(1)(ii)), and that test is about character, not about buying every square foot you described.

Compare the regulation's own two examples, both at the same 75 percent of value. In Example 4 the exchanger identified two unimproved acres worth $250,000, took 1.5 of them for $187,500 and took $62,500 back in cash, and the portion received “does not differ from the basic nature or character” of the whole, so it qualified.

In Example 3 the identified property was a barn on two acres, also worth $250,000, and the exchanger took the barn and the land under it for $187,500. That slice “differs in basic nature or character” from the improved-and-vacant parcel as a whole, so it was not substantially the same and the receipt requirement failed.

• Usually survives: buying a smaller share of a homogeneous parcel, or a property whose condition changed after you named it (Example 2 allows a fence built on identified vacant land).
• Usually fails: carving the building out of a building-and-land description, or swapping a neighbouring parcel in because the named one could not be delivered.
• Cash you take back on the way through is boot, so a downsized purchase has a tax cost of its own; see what is boot.

The change you want on day 60 is a decision you had to make on day 44

Because nothing can be added later, the cheapest insurance in the whole process is using all three slots before the deadline. Naming alternates costs no fee and commits you to nothing, and you may buy one, two or all three of them.

Hypothetical, round numbers: you sell for $1,200,000 and name the $1,300,000 building you want, a $900,000 second choice, and a $300,000 interest in a Delaware Statutory Trust. That is three names, so no value test applies at all, and the trust interest is the one that can be funded without a seller who might walk.

A trust that already owns its property closes on subscription documents rather than on inspections and loan approvals, which is why it so often occupies the third line; see how a DST works in an exchange and using DSTs as backup properties.

If days are still left on the clock, do it in this order

Changes made in a rush are where revocations go wrong, so treat the rewrite as a single document rather than a conversation. Confirm every step with your CPA or attorney, because nothing on the list can be corrected after midnight on day 45.

• Get the exact day-45 date from your intermediary in writing before you touch anything.
• Put the revocation and the replacement name in one signed, dated document so the two cannot be separated.
• Send it to the recipient of the original notice, not to your broker or your lawyer, whose receipt does not count (how to identify replacement property).
• Keep the transmission record; the regulation asks whether the document was sent in time, so proof of sending is what you will need later.
• Re-count the list afterwards, since a swap that leaves four names in place brings the 200 percent ceiling back into play.