[David0529]

My two brother and myself inherited one half of my grandfathers farm when he passed away back in the late 1990's. The other half is owned by my aunt. We are trying to sell the property now that my grandfather's wife has passes away. We could not do anything until she passed.

My questions are: When the will was created, the executor was a bank president. He has since passed away and the properties were never deeded to us. I have hired an attorney and now the properties are deeded to me and my two brothers as well as my aunt. How will I determine what the fair market value was back in the late 1990's and how do I know if the estate paid these taxes? Will each of us have to pay any taxes on the sell of this property and if so, how do we calculate how much?

[ScottGem]

You need to contact a real estate appraiser who can give you a valuation as of the date of death. Unless the estate was more than 2 million there would have been no inheritance taxes to pay.

Once you sell the property, you will have to pay capital gains taxes on the difference between the appraised value and the sales price (if any).

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

There are NO federal inheritance taxes, but there MAY be such taxes at the state level. A call or check of the state's tax website should answer that question.

There are estate taxes, but, as noted by Scott, the estate must exceed a set amount in net value before those taxes kick in. I believe the amount cited ($2M) is the current minimum. For 1999, the estate tax minimum was $650,000.