Parents gifting adult child with Home

[Ayodeji Kuponiyi]

My in-laws recently retired and want to give their home in Philadelphia, PA to my wife. How do we start the proces? Should we meet with a real estate attornery or go to a title transfer office?

[Jon Holdman]

I assume that if your parents are retiring AND giving you a house they must be pretty well off.  So, absolutely start by discussing this with a CPA.  The issue for them is that a gift of over $14,000 reduces the amount of money they can transfer on their deaths without taxes.  Each can give your wife $14K, so if the value of the property is more than $28K, the excess would reduce the amount they can transfer tax free on death.  Not that limit is something like $5 million, so this may or may not be an issue.

For you, the issue deals with your basis in the property.  If a property is transferred on death, the heirs get the "stepped up basis" which is the fair market value at the time of death.  But because this is being transferred while her parents are alive your wife's basis will be your parents basis.  That means if she sells down the road, her gain is determined based on what her parents paid for the house.