Posted by Len on September 03, 2009 at 23:38:28:
In regards to the best way to convey the property to your mother under Wisconsin statutes, I would suggest you get in touch with someone who is knowledgeable in Wisconsin statutes to advise you on what is the most expeditious way to transfer the property to your mother.
As to the other issues, there are some basic unanswered questions:
What is the fair market value (FMV) of the property in question?
How many owners are in the property beside you and your wife?
Are you all equal owners in the property?
What is your basis, or adjusted basis, in the property?
Did you purchase the property? Did you give your children interest in the property?
I know it is a lot of questions, but it will help in answering your basic question.
In general terms, as far as the gift to your mother, you and your wife can each gift up to $13,000 to any one person, using the federal gift tax annual exclusion. Also, if your children are owners in the property, as you say, they also are entitled to the $13,000 annual exclusion. So, let’s say that there are five of you listed as owners and you have not given your mother any gifts prior to gifting the property, you can convey up to $65,000 in the property without having any gift tax consequence. However, if you and your wife are “splitting a gift,” you would need to look at possibly having to file a IRS Form 709, for information purposes only.
If your individual interest in the property is more than the annual exclusion, then you get into using a part your Unified Credit against estate taxes. That is a whole different discussion. However, if it is, then I would suggest talking to someone knowledgeable in the topic. IRS Publication 950 (Estate and Gift Taxes) is available online for you to look at at the IRS website.
Your mother as the recipient, for federal purposes, would not be taxed on the gift received. She would, however, need to determine her basis for future disposition. In the past, because real estate values were always increasing, a recipient’ s basis was generally the lesser of either the fair market value on the date of the gift or the the donor’s basis (you, your wife and children – combined), plus any gift tax that would’ve been due on the property. However, with the values of property decreasing, it possibly could be just the reverse. I would advice you to get IRS Publication 551 (Basis) and read about the basis of gifted property.
There are a lot of unanswered questions, but it may ultimately be that there is no problem other than just getting all of the paperwork in order to document the transfer of the property.
Hope this serves as a basis on which to further your thought process?