Inherited coins and taxes

which is why the only good advice is to seek a local professional and let them advise you!

 

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This is the best advice.

Inheritance Taxes is over seen by the state you live in. In most states there is no inheritance tax unless the amount is a Million dollars or more of the value of the estate.

A CPA will not do you any good, you will need to contact an estate planning Attorney and I think he or she will tell you that you will have to file that amount on your taxes as income.

 

If the CPA knows anything about estate taxes, then a CPA will do a whole lot of good. But an estate planner might not be a bad idea. As I read the op's question, it appears to be an issue with the basis and the computation of income taxes. The CPA should be able to help here. As I said in my earlier post, the basis is the value of the coin collection on the day of death. If the $70K value is the value on that day, then that is the basis. The only exception that I know of is with the alternate date of valuation, but professional help is needed to see if that can apply here.

 

You probably need to work through the trustee of the estate - if you change the inheritance basis of the coin collection - you change the value basis of the entire estate.

 

Wow...take another shot why don't you, you seem like a nice person, hm..lets not take things so personally

 

If you live in a state that doesn't have a specific exemption for sales tax on coins and our B&M dealer isn't charging the sales tax, he is either paying it out of his profit on the coin, or someday you will fine the shop locked down by the state revenue people when they catch up with him for tax evasion.

Just another thing that makes lif difficult for the poor coin dealer. Customers who won't pay the legally required sales tax which means another 5% or more than comes out of the dealers pocket right off the top.

 

This thread is an excellent example of why you really need to be careful when reading posts on Coin Forums. And not just those dealing with legal issues.

EVERYTHING is an opinion here! Some are probably more accurate than others - i.e. grading opinions or good coin dealers. But with everything else, "put that in your pipe and smoke it" before you do anything rash!

And if you do find a post that is just wrong (There were no Ikes minted in 1973), and try to make a correction, you had better do it with smiley faces and preface all your remarks with polite civilities.

whew!

 

Speaking of sales tax on coins – and this is just from a fringe theoretical standpoint – I am of the opinion that ONLY the premium paid over monetary face value of a numismatic item is taxable. Else every-time you went to the bank and purchased change for your business it would create a sales taxable transaction. Every-time you tender a twenty dollar bill for a gallon of milk – the entire $20.00 would be sales taxable – because you are receiving a gallon of milk and the monetary face value of different coinage and currency in exchange. What does this have to do with the subject at hand – nothing really I guess – just thought I would throw it out.

 

Thats the way I understand the rules.

 

Tarquin:

Wow, there are some reall silly comments posted here.

The answers are rather simple:
You would want to find out the total value of the estate, there may have been a reason for the valuation of the coins, but I doubt it.

The estate filing can be amended (and obviously should be amended).
The value, (regardless of when you actually RECEIVED the coins) is as of the date of death, or 6 months later, the valuation is purely the choice of the individual estate.

If you can show that the values of the coins were misrepresented by the estate as of the date of the filing, then you can have them amend the return, not a big deal, since there (apparently) would only be one line item to be amended. However, consider, that the estate pays a very high tax rate.

If the return is amended, and the estate owes taxes, it would (probably) be at a higher rate than that which you owe.

Also, consider researching for the possibility of long term capital gains, search the estate tax guide, you may be eligible, and that would be a considerable saving.

To those who believe that an attorney knows the tax code better than a CPA, all that i can say to you is: Good luck.

 

Here is some research to start you off:

Publication 559

Holding period. If you sell or dispose of inherited property that is a capital asset, you have a long-term gain or loss from property held for more than 1 year, regardless of how long you held the property.


http://www.irs.gov/publications/p559/ar02.html#en_US_publink100099643


good luck.