irvinetalker
New member
My mom received a house from her mom in 1999; there was a grant deed with her mom reserving a life estate in the property, which if I recall was just a couple of weeks. For the next several years the house was at different times vacant or occupied by one of my mom's children. My mom never formally rented it out during this time. In 2017 she sold the house. Now it's tax time and she is trying to find some documentation that could help to establish her basis in the house for tax purposes. The accountant helping her with the 2017 transaction and who was going to do her taxes just had a heart attack and is in the hospital unlikely to recover, and my mom is at a loss as to what her accountant had in mind. How in 2018 can she come up with a basis for that property she inherited 19 years ago? Assuming she finds a new accountant, what kinds of documents can she bring in to the new accountant to help sort out the tax situation?
Her county had the property down at $25K-ish for property tax purposes (this is not Orange County, but another county in California), but that's sounds way too low. She sold it for $64K in 2017, and there's no way it was only worth $25K in 1999. If anything it was worth more than $64K in 1999. Her best guess is it was maybe around $100K at that time, but how would you support that?
Her county had the property down at $25K-ish for property tax purposes (this is not Orange County, but another county in California), but that's sounds way too low. She sold it for $64K in 2017, and there's no way it was only worth $25K in 1999. If anything it was worth more than $64K in 1999. Her best guess is it was maybe around $100K at that time, but how would you support that?