Are you sure about the illegality of selling a million dollar property [or any other] for $1? My mother had me become a co-owner of her property [worth far less than $1 million] some years before she died. She lived there, paid all costs and expenses, but when she died there was no problem, no taxes, I was already part owner of the house and became full owner. I know, as far as Medicare goes, it is illegal to hand over or sell for a nominal fee your house to a family member, within a certain number of years prior to you filing for Medicare. That keeps people from gaming the system. Not that I think the system is all that great. I don't understand why it would be illegal to sell your farm, whatever the value, to your son or granddaughter for a token fee and they become owners. Or have them legally become co-owners. Nancy ------- I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. --Daniel Boone On Jan 6, 2007, at 6:29 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote: > Original Message ----- > From: "Anne Pemberton" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2007 12:26 PM > Subject: Re: Carter's Grove to be sold > > >> Two financial tools are useful in preparing for the inheritance >> tax. The one >> most suggested is to purchase a life insurance policy designed to >> pay the >> inheritance taxes upon death. > > Such a policy would be very expensive....the premiums for an > elderly landowner almost prohibitive if, indeed, he could even > obtain a policy. Remember, these are people who are not "rich". > They do not usually have tons of cash sitting around with which to > go buy expensive insurance policies. Their wealth is in their land > which no one in the family wants to sell. Most of them just want to > do what they've always done: be left alone to farm. > > The other, perhaps a little fraught with >> potential mischief, is for the pre-dying elder owner to pass title >> to the >> next generation before death. > My mother-in-law did this, selling her home to >> her daughter for $1 in exchange of a home to live in until her >> death, and >> there was then no estate to pay taxes on (also the value was below >> that of >> the inheritance tax). Financial planning and responsibility in >> life can >> offset the effects of the inheritance tax. > You provided your own response when you said that the value of the > house was below the inheritance tax rate. If the property is below > the minimum amount to be estate taxed then there was never an > estate tax problem. It is totally illegal to sell for one dollar or > give away real estate that is valued at more than one million > dollars to an heir or anyone else. > The secret to successfully dealing with the estate tax is, voila! > Repeal it. > Or, at the very least, fix it so that a farmer isn't taxed at the > exact same rate as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and other > billionaires who tend to think that the death tax is > justifiable......to which I say, I guess they do! Their heirs could > pay 99% of the Gates or Buffett estate and STILL be billionaires. > The estate tax is one of the most onerous, most unfair, most > egregious examples of the government's attempts to redistibute wealth. > If anyone ever gets to studying the way it has been handled it > would blow your mind! > For example, under current law the death tax is being incrementally > reduced until the year 2010 when it disappears entirely for, what? > Twelve months. At the end of which (precisely 12:01 A.M., January > 1, 2011) the entire thing comes roaring back full tilt to the level > that is was before these "reforms".....which is why cynics call > 2010 the "Throw Momma From The Train Year". > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the > instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html