How do you dispose of a rental property if the owner gave it to someone without an exchange of money? The property has already been depreciated.

[IRonMaN]

That kinda depends.  Did he give it to a family member or did he give it in exchange for something else?

[chiodoinc]

He gave it to a friend.  He is an elderly gentleman and the individual has been a long time friend so he just gave it to him

[IRonMaN]

Then just delete it off the tax return.  There is nothing to report for income tax purposes.

[chiodoinc]

Thank you.  Just to add to the matter, if the new owner wanted to rent it out, how do you determine the cost basis for depreciation or would there be no cost basis since he didn't pay anything for the property?

[IRonMaN · Accepted solution]

For a gift, the basis is the basis of the person making the gift which you said was fully depreciated so the basis would be zero except for whatever the land cost was that hopefully was broken out when the asset was first depreciated.

[Camp1040]

Gift basis, donor's adjusted  basis.

[chiodoinc]

Thank you so much.  I appreciate your help

[sjrcpa]

Your client needs to file a gift tax return reporting the gift at FMV. (I'm assuming it was worth >$16,000.

[Camp1040]

@IRonMaN  I didn't see your reply when I posted, I don't want to piggy back on any replies. If I earn anymore cheer points or level upgrades, I just might start thinking that I am as smart as PS thinks I am, with the BS awards and badges. The BS stands for bachelor of science of course.

[IRonMaN]

The old forum kind of let you knew if someone was posting while you were typing so you could wait and see if you should continue typing but this one doesn't.  So sometimes there are surprises waiting for you when you post.  As a side note, I am still waiting for the Intuit BS badge.  You have to admit, nobody deserves that badge more than me 😁

[chiodoinc]

Thank you

[chiodoinc]

I hope you get it.  I read through a lot of posts and you give good answers.. Keep them coming 😁

[IRonMaN]

Thanks 😀

[rbynaker]

I don't know about a BS badge, but I hear if you call support you can get a Nickel.

I also read somewhere that if you don't know the answer to a question you just say Family Trust.

[IRonMaN]

I see you met Hope's sister. 😉

[BobKamman]

Others with more badges than I have can assume there was no mortgage on the property.  I'm just going to point out that if there was, it would be considered a sale for what's owed on it.  

[IRonMaN]

But some of us have been going to mind reading school for a number of years and when we see "elderly" and "gave away" in the same post, we are pretty confident that there was no mortgage.  But none of us have ever gotten a 100% on our mind reading tests, so our mind reading skills aren't perfect.