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| *Loan,banking and credit>>>estate tax |
How avoid son having to pay whopping inheritance taxes on real estate? |
When we bought our home I put my son's name on the deed to avoid his having to pay whopping inheritance taxes. In the event of my inevitable demise, he is already on title and just assumes full rather than partial ownership of the property. Now somebody tells me that this will actually cause legal confusion & result in his paying whopping capital gains taxes upon our demise when he sells the real estate, and that it's better to leave it as part of the estate for him to inherit and dispose of. Which is true? Estate planning is a complicated area that requires a firm understanding of many factors related to you and your finances. It may be in your best interests to consult either a CPA who has significant experience in estate planning or an estate attorney. With that bing said, here are some general factors to consider. Will your estate be taxed? Many average taxpayers will not be subject to the estate tax anyway. Currently the applicable exclusion amount is $2,000,000. So if you die in 2007 and ALL of your assets are valued less than $2,000,000 you do not have to worry about the Estate tax. When you die, your son would get a "stepped up" basis allowing him to sell the property tax free (assuming he sold it for the value it was appraised for on your date of death) However, there may be other reasons to transfer ownership of your home to your son beyond estate tax (some people try to shield assets from nursing homes in this way). It seems that you have already transferred your home to your son, so lets deal with that. I am assuming that your son did not pay you for your home, therefore his basis is zero. So when he goes to sell it, he will pay capital gains tax on the entire selling price less selling expense. He may be able to get around this by making your home his permanent residence after you die and exclude a portion of the gain under Section 121 (However he would have to reside in the home for at least 2 years). As you can see there are many factors to consider, that is why I would encourage you to seek someone familiar with the the laws as well as your circumstances to give you the best direction. Source(s): Estate and Gift Tax - Introduction http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/arti... Why are you worrying about what's going to happen when your son SELLS the property??? You have no idea what the property will be worth at some unknown date in the future when your son may want to sell it. And what if he decides NOT to sell it, and it passes on to another generation? You can't eliminate all the possibilities in advance. You can avoid inheritance taxes, or you can avoid capital gains taxes, but you can't avoid BOTH on the same piece of property. That's just the way it goes. You should look into setting up an revocable living trust with an incapacity clause. Also have a will. Call up an estate lawyer who specialize in these types of matters. Good luck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/living_trus... Hi, first of all, since he would own the property and sell it, current law states that you get a $250,000 exclusion (another $250,000) if he was married, with no capitol gains if it was used as your principal residence for the prior two years. He would only pay the capitol gains on anything over that. Second, if you are just trying to avoid a lengthy probate process you could put it in a revocable trust. Which means you have the option of changing it any time, but if you should pass, it would go straight to him without a probate process. I hope this helps If you are talking about whopping taxes why are you looking on a Yahoo board to answer your question? Obviously you have some money. Why won't you spend a couple of hundred dollars and ask a professional? It would seem to me that it would be money well spent. Don't you agree? |
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