George posted:

- quote -

You can certainly adjust the cost basis to show the *actual*
Fair Market Value at the time of the inheritance. "Assessed
value" is a vague term -- which in many counties, in many
states, bears small resemblance to sales or market
valuation. Depending on how long it has been since the
inheritance, you may need some guidance from the selling
agent on what the actual value was at the time inherited.

- quote -

I can't speak to that. But many counties update the
assessed value of properties based on sales value, when
transfers occur. In CA and FL, where there are limitations
on raising assessments beyond a limited percentage, there
are big windfall increases for counties when properties are
sold -- but that doesn't always cause trouble for the
"seller."

Bill

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

My wife's family had some farm property in another state
(MN). When her mother died, my wife and her siblings
inherited their mother's share. As I understand it, when
the estate was settled, the property was listed at its
assessed value, and the value of the buildings was
inadvertently omitted. (This was just an oversight; the
value was well below the estate tax threshold.)

Now, the property has been sold. So, we have a sale price.
Our basis is the 'value' at the time of inheritance. My
question is, do we have to use the declared value from the
estate filing, or can we adjust that, to (1) account for the
value of the buildings, and (2) adjust for the difference
between market value and assessed value?

I'm told that the MN revenue office has some sort of tables
that track the relationship between sale prices and assessed
values for different types of property in each county.

TIA,
George

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->