[HN Gopher] Why the math on inheriting your parents' California ...
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       Why the math on inheriting your parents' California home has
       changed
        
       Author : mikhael
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2023-11-11 19:47 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sfchronicle.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sfchronicle.com)
        
       | verall wrote:
       | The way this article frames paying property taxes for your home
       | at market valuation as an "effective inheritance tax" even though
       | you can get a MILLION dollars in value exempted by living their
       | as your primary residence for 1 measly year after inheriting the
       | property really elucidates the issues with housing and property
       | taxes in California.
        
         | happytiger wrote:
         | Absolutely. It's so lost on the author that the property tax
         | system is distorting valuations in the first place that they
         | don't even examine it.
        
         | jseliger wrote:
         | I read this:
         | 
         |  _"If three siblings inherit a $1.5 million house from their
         | parents, and only one of them wants to keep it, she will have
         | to buy out the other siblings' share for $1 million, which
         | reflects the high cost of housing in the Bay Area," Alisjahbana
         | said. "It's often not possible to buy out the siblings' shares,
         | so in this situation it's common to sell the house."_
         | 
         | My heart really goes out to the unfortunate people who inherit
         | $500,000. Compared to those of us who inherit $0, their
         | situation is so tragic.
        
         | YeBanKo wrote:
         | I know multiple people who inherited houses and has been
         | sitting on it to avoid paying market-rate property tax. In my
         | experience they also tend to be the shittiest landlords.
        
       | everybodyknows wrote:
       | Paywalled.
        
         | setheron wrote:
         | I couldn't get web archive link to work either.
        
       | mavelikara wrote:
       | > Under Prop. 19, the parents' tax basis does not pass to the
       | child. However, if the home is the inheritor's primary residence
       | for at least one year after the property transfer, they can apply
       | to have up to $1 million of the home's value not reassessed. If
       | the home is worth more than $1 million, anything over that amount
       | would be reassessed. Even with this exemption, inheritors are
       | likely to see a substantial increase in annual property taxes,
       | amounting to thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars,
       | Button said.
       | 
       | Kids inheriting property need to pay property taxes, just like
       | their new neighbors. Move on please, nothing to see here.
        
       | PopAlongKid wrote:
       | >Most heirs are not equipped to take on a tax bill that could
       | potentially jump from $800 to $20,000 on the death of a parent,
       | 
       | This is a misleading and extremely outlying example. No one in
       | CA, even if they bought their house for $80,000 and never made a
       | single capital improvement, still has only $800 property tax
       | bill, because it goes up each year (just not as much as the
       | market value). And to get an increase of $20K in property tax,
       | the house would have to be worth $3,000,000, which is still far
       | above the median.
       | 
       | More importantly, the income tax benefit is orders of magnitude a
       | bigger deal. Income tax on a $2,000,000 gain would be 23.8%
       | federal at least, and probably well over 10% California (so about
       | $650,000). Yet they will pay none of that, due to the basis
       | adjustment to fair market value upon death of the owner(s).
       | 
       | If the heirs can't figure out how to keep the house via a secured
       | loan and their $650,000 in income tax savings, they probably have
       | much more pressing money problems to deal with I imagine.
        
         | pauldenton wrote:
         | So what is the Median house value in California? Or San
         | Francisco which this SFChronicle article is from?
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-11 23:01 UTC)