Ten years ago, I inherited a vacant lot. I sold it this year and now I have to figure the basis for calculating my gain or loss. I know that the basis is the full market value at the time of death, but how do I determine this? Would it be sufficient to look at the assessed evaluation that the county used for tax purposes in the year of death and the preceding year, then use whichever is lowest? I want to make this simple. The gain or loss is going to be close to zero, so I don't want to spend a lot of time digging up the estate tax return (wouldn't know where to begin looking), or digging up sale prices of similar lots from ten years ago. If I can use the county's assessed evaluation, should I use the earlier one, the later one, the lower one, or a prorated value in between? Thanks.
- posted
17 years ago