Posted on 02/20/2021 11:08:31 AM PST by taildragger
And when I sell my house, the profit isn’t taxed.
In this context we are talking about appreciated assets one owns at the time of death.
The primary reason for the stepped-up basis rule is that in many cases it is difficult, if not impossible, to figure out what the basis for property owned by a decedent is. When my 88 year old mother dies and the house she and my father built thirty-five years ago is sold, how am I going to figure out how much they spent to build the house and for improvements during their ownership? There's no way that I can. The records do not exist.
See, this doesn't even ring true anymore. Print the money.
This century has taught us -- taxes are a conceit. Taxes don't need to budge an inch.
Any Resident Xiden tax machinations are solely to screw Trump's re-expansion of the middle class.
So if you ever hear someone complain that "we have to sell the farm that's been in the family for generations, in order to pay the estate taxes," what they're not telling you is that they belong to first generation of the family that has no interest in farming.
I hear this crap all the time from people in their 40s and 50s who are doctors, lawyers, corporate executives, etc. -- and they go through this "poor old farm family" nonsense to garner sympathy because they don't want to do what it takes to qualify for a major tax exemption.
Yes....
I’ll bet you could figure that out with a little help from an estate lawyer and a good accountant.
That’s nothing.
They are going to zero-out your bank accounts and cancel your credit cards soon.
Death camps are the end=game.
Just following Xi Xianping’s orders.
That exemption is written into the tax code for your own home — but not for one that is transferred to someone else through a sale or inheritance.
I'm a business lawyer with an advanced law degree in taxation.
There is no way to figure out what it cost to build the house, what subsequent improvements were made and the costs of those improvements because any records of those costs, if there ever were any, are long gone.
I can't believe even the Democrats would be stupid enough to pass this because it would piss off everybody.
Under current law, only $250k of the gain is not taxed. If, for example, the gain is $300k you would pay tax on $50k.
We downsized last year and signed our home over to our children. It was necessary to jettison a lot of belongings and memorabilia from 58 years of marriage.
Over the years we have been fairly diligent in keeping the clutter to a minimum. Even so, we had a lot to give away and donate. I am so glad that we did it.
Should have explained that:
“A step-up in basis is the readjustment of the value of an appreciated asset for tax purposes upon inheritance. 1 The higher market value of the asset at the time of inheritance is considered for tax purposes. ... A step-up in basis is applied to the cost basis of property transferred at death.”
What’s the work around then? Add your kids to the deed and make it a Quit Claim? Would that be a protection?
I'm not saying you are categorically wrong BUT the exemption that I know for the circumstances and provisos you give does NOT EQUAL exemption from estate tax! Instead it allows added time (15 years) to pay the estate tax WHEN the estate assets have a minimum of 35% agriculture AND the inheritors will continue to 'farm'.
BUT while I DO agree that most farms are under even that $5 million threshold, there is no inflation clause and that is the LEFT's greatest weapon here! Remember when $3k was a lot of money and logical for an investment loss annual limit? I don't but it sure hasn't changed in decades!
Hypothetically speaking, how would you advise a client in that scenario where they have inherited a house built by the sole previous owner 50+ years ago?
Republicans are also very complicit in social engineering via the tax code. The Federal Earned Income Tax Credit morphed into a negative income tax during the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan years. Of course with assistance from Jimmy Carter and the Democrats.
On a lighter note, the Yellowstone Supervolcano could blow, kill millions out West, and block out the Sun for a year.
A Yellowstone eruption would probably damage the US less than the Biden Administration will, so I guess we can hope for the best. ;-)
And runaway inflation will soon eat away at our savings, while lowering the government costs for their rampant debt.
Win-win for them. Too bad for the rest of us.
btw - where did all those trillions go, I wonder.... /s
might also be in the property tax records...
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