Frank S. Duke, Jr. wrote:
- quote -

Or as an alternative to the gift tax issue: Is the receipt
of the property your COMPENSATION for administering the
estate? :-(

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lynn721us[at]yahoo.com (Lynn) wrote:

- quote -

It's generally state law that determines if something is an
inheritance or not.

- quote -

Unless you are your friend's sole heir, he inherited the
property and gave it to you. He got the stepped up basis,
and you take the same basis he had. Your friend should file
a gift tax return.

Stu

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"Lynn" <lynn721us[at]yahoo.com> wrote

- quote -

As far as the IRS cares, you inherited the property (and
yes, you would get a step up in basis).

If I were you I would seek some strong legal counsel to
determine if all the laws were followed in what you did or
didn't do.

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

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"Lynn" <lynn721us[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

It looks to me that you did not inherit the property, rather
you received it as a gift from your friend. He inherited the
property, he got a stepped up basis, and you took his basis
when you received the gift.

The bottom line is that you effectively received the date of
death stepped up basis.

However, your friend is obligated to file a gift tax return,
assuming the property was worth more than $11K.

Barry Picker, CPA/PFS, CFP

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Lynn at lynn721us[at]yahoo.com wrote:

- quote -

The property stepped up in basis to the heirs, no matter who
they were. If the father had a will and you followed the
terms of the will, the people that got the property as a
result were the rightful heirs. If the father did not have
a will, then the property should have been distributed by
state law, most likely to the lineal descendents, of which
you are not one. If the lineal descendents then "gave" you
the property, that was a gift, probably in excess of $11,000
and a gift tax return is due.

This raises all sorts of questions, unanswered by your
message. Should this estate have been probated? Were state
death taxes due? Was there a gift? Why would your "friend"
give away a valuable property? Did you take unfair
advantage of a person in a ravaged emotional state? Did you
fulfill your fiduciary duty as administrator?

All freely provided advice guarantee correct or double your
money back

Frank S. Duke, Jr. CPA
Cincinnati, OH USA

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I would like to know if anyone knows what the IRS's
definition of inheritance is...

I had a friend who's father died and my friend did not want
to bother with doing a probate, so I filed as administrator
and did the probate the father owned a home so I gave the
property to myself, my friend signed saying he didn't care
that I was doing this. so my question is did I inherit the
property and do I get a steped up basis? or can only a
relative inherit a residential property?

thanks,

Lynn

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