in [Event] Ask the Experts: Tax Law Changes - One Big Beautiful Bill
We have a 2nd home jointly owned with my wife and adult daughter. There will be capital gain on sale of about $100k. My daughter had income as well so she is not a dependent on our joint return.
My daughter resided in this home while attending school for 3 years, so she can claim exclusion of $250K so there is no capital gain for her. My wife and I did not live there so we believe we have to report gain.
How do we apportion- is it 1/3 to each owner, or 1/2 for wife and I and 1/2 to daughter, or can we arbitrarily assign the gain as we want to advantage our taxes?
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It depends on how the ownership situation was established and what the papers at the time said. If this was a new purchase and the deed does not otherwise specify, it will be 1/3 share per owner. If you and your spouse owned the home prior, and made a gift to your daughter via quitclaim deed, you would have been required to file a gift tax return for the amount of the gift, and that would have established the size of the gift (perhaps as 1/3 the value of the house or something different).
You can't go back and now say that 98% of the home was your daughter's and 1% for each spouse just because it would reduce your taxable gain to say so. If audited, the IRS will also look at how the home was acquired and how the proceeds of the sale were divided. If the home was purchased 100% with parents' funds (as a place for the child to live while attending college, for example), and 100% of the sales proceeds go to the parents, then an auditor is likely to rule that the home was in actuality owned only by the parents and there is no allowable capital gains exclusion for it being the daughter's primary residence.
You may want to have your situation reviewed by a tax professional.
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