Gifting of Real Property

[dlubet-41]

In 2018 I gifted rental property in Arizona to my disabled brother & his wife to live in. Since I still owed about $54k, it was a gift of equity. The Title Co. in AZ sent a 1099-S to the IRS, listing gross proceeds of $300k. Unfortunately, I listed the asset sales price from the 1099-S and my tax due jumped enormously. In trying to fix the problem I find that turbo tax will not let me change the entry. How do I correct the turbo tax entry?

[Anonymous]

i'm confused a gift is not a sale and a sale is not a gift.  so how or why was a 1099-S generated by the title co if there was no sale?  and how could it come up with a sales price of $300K.   

please clarify exactly what was done

[TomYoung]

The term "gift of equity" is typically used in a sale situation, typically when you sell to a relative at less than fair market value.  It has nothing to do with the amount of mortgage that may be a lien on the property.

I'm guessing that you used a title company to effect an actual sale here, probably at a big discount, and maybe the brother & wife assumed the mortgage or something? 

This could be a situation where consulting some local professional help may be in order.  I'm guessing the "gift" was in the form of a large discount from FMV, but I'm not sure how that discount might be affected if the brother & wife assumed the mortgage.  Common sense would say that the gift is the discount minus the mortgage but "common sense" and "income taxes" rarely appear in the same sentence.

Have you filed a gift tax return?  That's certainly something you should do.

I think you want to keep that 1099-S out of your income tax return if this was a true "gift" situation.

[Lisa995]

Since a 1099-S was issued, IRS will be looking for this amount on your tax return.  Since this was a rental property, you may have some depreciation that needs to be recaptured.  You may want to seek the assistance of a local tax professional to help you get this reported correctly and avoid any issues with IRS down the line.