707-584-1040 info@mayclincpa.com

Hi, I’m Tim Mayclin, CPA from Rohnert Park, California. A lot of questions I get from my clients regard inheritance, whether it’s taxable or not, and the answer is, it depends.

Life insurance policies are normally not taxable, assuming that the premiums were not deducted in some way. Assets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate, the beneficiary will pay tax between the difference of the sell price and the basis at the time of inheritance. It’s important to get evaluation of those assets on the date of death because that becomes the basis for the beneficiary.

Things such as cash are non-taxable. What will happen is the estate will do what’s called a trust return and that will show any profit or any income or loss from the trust, and that return will issue a K1 which gets sent to the beneficiary. They use that to fill out their personal tax return.

If you have any questions, please contact your local CPA. Thank you.