Eagle Home Appraisal Fayetteville
IRS step-up appraisals in Fayetteville
When you inherit a house, your tax basis is generally its value on the day the owner passed away. An appraisal puts that value on paper.
Call with the address and the date of passing. We will tell you what the report would include and what to find.
“Step-up” is shorthand. It does not promise a bigger number.
Basis follows the value on that day, and that can be lower than what the owner paid. We report what we find, and your tax adviser works out what it means for your return (26 U.S.C. 1014). With a pile of papers and an accountant’s question, that is exactly the kind of call we like.
What North Carolina changes, and what it does not
North Carolina has no estate or inheritance tax for current passings, so no state date competes with the federal one. Federal law does not tax an inheritance either. It taxes the estate, and only above $15,000,000 for 2026. Inheriting a house is generally not income to you, though rent it earns later is taxable (Publication 525).
The same value can go on the estate inventory filed with the Clerk of Superior Court in Cumberland County. Our probate page covers that filing.
A home the couple owned together
For a home held as tenants by the entirety, IRS Publication 551 counts half its value in the first spouse’s estate, so a surviving spouse should not assume the whole house takes a new basis. Ask your adviser.
Three questions every past-date report answers
Which date? Date of passing, the alternate date or both. Your adviser names it.
How did the house look then? Photos, invoices and insurance claims from that time help.
What was the market doing? The opinion rests on sales from that period. Today’s prices cannot stand in for a past value.
Cumberland County records that help
The deed at the Register of Deeds, dated photos, and any record of repairs or damage near the date. The county tax value is set for January 1, 2025 and is not a past-date value.
A few questions that come up.
What if the executor chose the alternate date?
It is elected only on the estate tax return (Form 706). We value whichever date you give us, and can value both.
Eagle Home Appraisal Fayetteville