Can I decrease my capital gain taxes even though my husband put house in my name in 1995?

[19458020mca]

bought house in 1974 in both our names , in 1995 put in my name so he would not be sued , he died in jan 2012 and i sold house in june 2016. we lived in same house together all his life

[Phillip1 · Accepted solution]

If you lived in the home until you sold the home, you will qualify to take the home sale exclusion of 250,000 dollars. 

You need to meet the following requirements to exclude the sale of a home:

• You owned the home and used it as your main home during at least 2 of the last 5 years before the date of sale.
• You didn’t acquire the home through a like-kind exchange (also known as a 1031 exchange), during the past 5 years.
• You didn’t claim any exclusion for the sale of a home that occurred during a 2-year period ending on the date of the sale of the home, the gain from which you now want to exclude.

If there is taxable capital gain (either after including the 250,000 dollars or if you do not qualify for the exclusion) you may want to consult with a local estate or tax attorney regarding the cost basis of the property. Ordinarily, your cost basis would have (at least a partial) increase in cost basis to the fair market value on the date your husband died. However, when property is given away before death, the step up in cost basis  is no longer an available tax benefit. The local estate attorney may be able to find some way out this tax problem.