More importantly: losing actual money to save on taxes is hugely inefficient. If he was doing this to save on taxes, he would have taken a paper loss via depre

More importantly: losing actual money to save on taxes is hugely inefficient. If he was doing this to save on taxes, he would have taken a paper loss via depreciation -- meaning, not actually selling it, just changing the book value of it -- with the intent of paying capital gains tax at some future date (well, more likely, borrowing against its "true" value indefinitely).