I have a related complicated situation: my father gave me property in California in 1986 via quit-claim deed and a $1 amount. I do not know if he filed gift tax or inheritance exclusion with his taxes that year. His intention was to protect some assets if he had legal trouble and, ultimately, to bequeath it to me.
He lived on an adjacent property (the property he gave me was a parcel connected to his) and I lived on the property he gave me until 1992. I then moved and he had access to the property as extension of his parcel from 1992 - 2008 (although his primary residence was on the adjacent separate parcel that stayed in his name.) In 2008 he got sick and moved into an apartment, and subsequently lost his business and house to debts. Since the gift was intended to enable me to support him in extremis, I took out a line-of-credit on the property to support him and settle some of his debts, and we rented the house and he collected the proceeds of the rent to supplement social security until he died.
Since he died I have collected the rent and last year I sold it to the tenant. Is my basis for the sale:
--$1 shown on Quit Claim deed?
--FMV of the house in 1986?
--Value as of his death in 2019 since he “retained” the rights to the property since he had access to it and collected rents that were paid until his death?
Thank you for any help provided.
