can I buy a house and deed it to my daughter without any tax issues?

calendar October 5, 2008
tax issues
alan p asked:


If I buy a house, can I put the deed in my daughter’s name or is their a tax issue with that? Is it considered a gift and therefore taxable about $10,000? Or is there some way around that?

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5 Responses to “can I buy a house and deed it to my daughter without any tax issues?”

  1. pl_slcd Says:

    yes, living trust. look into that

  2. Zen Says:

    Some states have the ceiling at 11K. Remember you can give that gift amount every year. That means if you don’t buy it outright, that amount of payments for the year is covered without gift tax issues. While I am sure the yearly payments will be more than that, you may look into being co-owners of the house. This may be a way to consider her half of the payments your making the gift. Setting up the living will is probably going to come into play if you are able to do this, which pl_scd already suggested you look into.

  3. Laura Says:

    There are always tax issues dealing with real estate. I’m not extremely versed in this area of accounting, but I have studied it in the process of my accounting degree. This will fall in one of two categories, either a living trust or a gift. I am not certain about the living trust rules, you can easily find that out online, but if it falls under a gift, it will definitely be worth enough for you to be required to pay a gift tax. Under either situation, you will be required to pay taxes for this.

    There are others options, but none of them are perfect. Two options I know of, and both will still require a lawyer, are:
    (1) purchase the house and get the lawyer to draw up paperwork to “sell” the house to your daughter for $1. She will have to pay capital gain taxes on the full value of the house if she ever decides to sell it, but that will defer taxes until that time. The only bad thing about this option though is that capital gain taxes are EXTREMELY high, so this might not be the way to go.
    (2) purchase the house and leave it in your name, but allow her to live there, at the time of purchase draw up a document passing full ownership to her in the occurance of your death or diability. This will just leave her paying inheritance taxes on the property at the time of your death. Of course with this option, you really can’t transfer ownership to her until your death.

    My best suggestion to you would be to speak to an actual CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and a lawyer about your options. (Just a lawyer won’t help unless it’s a Tax Lawyer because they are not versed in tax rules). A CPA will be able to show you each option, thier ups and downs, and give you thier opinion on which would be best for your situation.

    I wish you luck in this, I know it’s complicated.

  4. waggy_33 Says:

    If you buy the house in her name you have made a gift. If you continue to live is the house until you die the hose will still be part of your estate.
    You should really talk with a good CPA to work out what you are trying to accomplish. If it is asset protection you might buy the house in the name of an LLC.

  5. Mathew Says:

    Buy the house and put it in both of your names at the time of purchase. At some point quit claim your name from the title and she owns the entire house. No reportable tax events have occurred.
    The gift tax issue has nothing to do with the home gift idea. However the limits are $12,000 and both a husband and wife may give that amount, meaning $24,000. If you exceed that amount you, the giver must report it, not the receiver to whom it is tax free regardless of the amount. After you die the amounts you have given away will have an impact on your estate taxes, which at the moment do not effect anyone with less than $2 million in assets.

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