- quote -

Somewhere you need to come up with a market value cira 1981.
If you do so I doubt anyone will question it any further.
If you draw a total blank the IRS will be glad to plug in
"0." Old tax assessments adjusted to market ratio shoud be
a good clue.

If yor rented the property structures out you need to
subtract all the depreciation you could have take-whether
you remembered to do so or not. (not so for mere land.)

Add back capital improvements, selling costs and recent
repairs to implement the sale.

That should be approximately your adjusted basis. All the
rest upon sale is long term gain. Taxable most likely at 15%
or less.

What did you do with the house for 23 years? If you rented
it out and pocketed the money all these years you may want
to discuss the issues with legal counsel BEFORE you open up
a can of worms!!

And if you let Aunt Jane live there free all these years you
may want to have counsel review the issues before you shoot
yourself in the foot!

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- quote -

You will have to determine that. An appraiser should be
able to help or if you want to try going it alone, check tax
records for that period of time to see what property values
were in 1981. I had to determine the basis of land
inherited in 1974 and sold in 2001. It can be done. Not
only that, it HAS to be done.

Carol

What can one expect of a day that begins with getting out of
bed.

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Fahey wrote:

- quote -

No you're not stuck. Hie thee to a competent local real
estate appraiser armed with most recent tax appraisals. He
will most probably be able to back track from there to come
up with the 1981 value, close enough for government work, as
we say.

One thing comes to mind, though. What have y'all done with
the property during that time? Just sat vacant or rented
it out? Let us know and there may be more helpful advice for
you here.

Happy New Cheer$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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Jerry posted:

- quote -

Here are some possibilities:

1) Check with realtors in the area, and see if one has
historical data on the average sales price per square foot
of property in the neighborhood in 1981. Or, any other data
on "comparables" that you could use to estimate the cost
basis when inherited. If you really get lucky, you might
find someone who would write you a letter with an informed
"guesstimate" to keep in your files as support for your
Schedule D entry.

2) Check with the county assessor, and see if you can chat
up a friendly clerk who might dig out some sales records of
comparables from 1981.

3) Newspapers? Real estate ads for similar properties in
1981.

4) Don't overlook neighbors. There could be someone who is
still living in the neighborhood who has information about
1981 prices. (Maybe the people next door bought their house
in 1981, and can give you very specific information.)

In the end, without records, you'll need to do some
"detective" work. Good luck.

Bill

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"Fahey" <jefahey[at]charter.net> wrote

- quote -

How do you know that?

- quote -

Without some type of prior year valuation already in hand,
I'd suggest finding the county property tax reports from
back then (Hint: it's in a dusty box in the courthouse
attic) and use that valuation.

--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
taxman at negia.net

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23 years ago my brother and I inherted our family house.
Neither one of us has lived there. The value was not enough
to involve Inheritance Tax. This year we sold the house and
property. Do you have any idea how we can find how much the
Capital Gains will be? We have no idea what the house and
property was worth in 1981. And with out that, how do we
figure the taxable part of the sale?

Thanks for any help you can give us, we're stuck!

Jerry

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