• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Parents Want to Give me their Home

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

jcbaty

Junior Member
From Arkansas.
My parents are getting up there in age and want to give my wife and I their home so that if they end up in a nursing home the government won't be able to seize it. Is there anything special I should know before we do this? Thanks.
 


seniorjudge

Senior Member
Q: Is there anything special I should know before we do this?

A: Yes, you should go to a tax CPA or a tax lawyer with every single detail. You could get hit with a huge tax bill if you do this. If you still want to do it, then y'all need an excellent estate planning attorney to help you.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
seniorjudge said:
Q: Is there anything special I should know before we do this?

A: Yes, you should go to a tax CPA or a tax lawyer with every single detail. You could get hit with a huge tax bill if you do this. If you still want to do it, then y'all need an excellent estate planning attorney to help you.

**A: excellent advice.
 

jcbaty

Junior Member
Thanks SeniorJudge & HomeGuru, but...........

Their house is only worth about $40K, which means that they could gift the house to my wife & I tax-free (to both them and us) because of the $11K per person exclusion. Then again, they could sell me the house for super cheap. Any other thoughts?
 

Ciarraine

Member
"Selling it to you super cheap" is basically still a gift of equity, and you'd still have tax consequences. As far as the gov't 'seizing' their property if they go into a nursing home, that's not likely; what's more likely is that they'd sell the home to pay for the nursing care expenses.

You really do need need to see someone who can help you with financial and legal plans for the future. It's not that expensive and would give you a much better grasp on your parent's future. There's so many other ways to plan for expenses and you should get some professional advice on what will be best for your family.
 

divgradcurl

Senior Member
In addition to what the other posters have mentioned, if they transfer the house to you at less than fair market value -- tax consequences or not -- and they end up in a nursing home, that won't necessarily protect the house. If the government suspects that the reason they transferred the house, or disposed of any other assets, was to avoid having to use them to pay for nursing care, well, that's a fraudulent transfer, the government can undo the transfer, and folks can go to jail.

There are ways of transferring assets to protect them, but you'll need to enlist the services of an estate-planning specialist.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top