Nature of Business

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Nature of Business

NATURE OF BUSINESS

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (“WashREIT”), a Maryland real estate investment trust, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust, successor to a trust organized in 1960. Our business primarily consists of the ownership of apartment communities in the greater Washington, DC metro and Southeastern regions. Within these notes to the financial statements, we refer to the three months ended September 30, 2021 and September 30, 2020 as the “2021 Quarter” and the “2020 Quarter,” respectively, and the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and September 30, 2020 as the “2021 Period” and the “2020 Period,” respectively. During the 2021 Period, we executed the sale of twelve office properties and the sale of eight retail properties in two separate transactions (see note 3). The sold office and retail properties are classified as discontinued operations. We have one remaining office property, Watergate 600, that does not meet the qualitative or quantitative criteria for a reportable segment (see note 10). The dispositions of the office and retail properties are part of a strategic shift away from the commercial sector to the residential sector which simplifies our portfolio to one reportable segment (residential) (the “strategic transformation”).

Federal Income Taxes

We believe that we qualify as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) under Sections 856-860 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), and intend to continue to qualify as such. To maintain our status as a REIT, we are, among other things, required to distribute 90% of our REIT taxable income (determined before the deduction for dividends paid and excluding net capital gains to our shareholders) on an annual basis. When selling a property, we generally have the option of (a) reinvesting the sales proceeds of property sold in a way that allows us to defer recognition of some or all taxable gain realized on the sale, (b) distributing gains to the shareholders with no tax to us or (c) treating net long-term capital gains as having been distributed to our shareholders, paying the tax on the gain deemed distributed and allocating the tax paid as a credit to our shareholders. The net taxable gains on the sales of our office and retail properties were distributed to shareholders through quarterly dividends in 2021.

Generally, and subject to our ongoing qualification as a REIT, no provisions for income taxes are necessary except for taxes on undistributed taxable income and taxes on the income generated by our taxable REIT subsidiaries (“TRSs”). Our TRSs are subject to corporate federal and state income tax on their taxable income at regular statutory rates. As of both September 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020, our TRSs had a deferred tax asset of $1.4 million that was fully reserved.