Tenants NOT in common and TAX question

[stirrupm]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois

I have a home I inherited from my father when he passed away last October. My father and I are listed on the deed as “joint tenants and not as tenants in common.” No other siblings are on the deed. My fathers wishes were for me to sell the house and split the monies between my siblings. I have five other siblings and am currently trying to sell the house. Am I going to have to bare all of the tax burden or will the tax implication be spread to the other siblings when the house is sold and they receive their share? Will there even be a tax burden?

 

[FlyingRon]

Well at least half of the house gets a stepped up basis to the value at your father's passing (with the rather flat housing market these days, that's probably pretty close to the current value). Are you splitting the entire house proceeds or just half?

Are you living in the house now?

Since essentially the house is yours, you will incur whatever tax liability there is. You could certainly deduct that from the proceeds you give to your siblings.
Depending on how much money we are talking about here, you may need to file gift returns and it may eat into your overall exclusion (you could dribble it out over successive years if you wanted to diminsh some of that if practical).

This all reflects the need to do proper estate planning.

 

[Zigner]

Just to reiterate - absent a will and absent a surviving spouse, you will be selling the house and keeping half of the proceeds. Then you'll be splitting the other half in to 6 parts and distributing it evenly among the siblings...

 

[stirrupm]

joint tenants and not as tenants in common and Tax question

Wow! Thanks for the quick reply... I agree, proper estate planning is key! The only reason my father put me on the house is because he did not want it to go into probate. He asked me to split the proceeds with the other 5 siblings. That in mind, are the proceeds considered capital gains or inheritance? The house will sell for about $110K and is currently vacant. Thanks for your time!

 

[stirrupm]

joint tenants and not as tenants in common and tax question

To clear things up all of the prceeds will be split evenly between the siblings.

 

[Zigner]

My earlier post was in error based on a misunderstanding of the question as presented...sorry.