Old inherited property with no appraisal

[rnewton36317]

• My siblings and I sold a house that we inherited in 2001 after our mother died. I can’t afford a retroactive appraisal right now. All I have as proof of what the house was worth at the time of her death is the tax assessment history on Zillow which is the only website that goes back that far. Will the IRS accept these figures? The other caveat is that tax assessments for our town are not done every year. So we have figures for 2000, and then it just jumps to 2003! Our mom passed in 2001. Nonetheless the house was worth 60-70 thousand around that time based on the Zillow tax assessment. There was a lot of expenses and a mortgage on the house so we only ended up with only 14000 each when we sold it. No one lived in the house except a nephew rent free. We sold it for less than what it was worth just to hurry and unload it. Is the Zillow tax assessment sufficient for the IRS? Not excited about getting a potential tax bill for this! 

[KrisD15]

We can't say what the IRS will or will not question, but if you make an honest attempt, and using the tax assessment (even if it is not done yearly) seems like a reasonable estimate, the IRS should accept that.