Cost basis reset...

October 10, 2007 5:38 PM

Suppose that person A buys a stock that then increases in value, and then person A dies leaving everything he or she owns person B. Then under U.S. law the cost basis of the stock for person B is reset to the price at the time of the person A's death. Suppose now that I am the executor of person A's will. Does this tax benefit apply if I sell the stock and distribute the proceeds to person B, or must I transfer the stock to person B?
posted by retiree to work & money (4 comments total)

(This is just a guess- ask a real lawyer, please!)
I would say yes. The stocks became B's property on A's death, stepped-up basis and all. The tax law provides that the transfer happens at the moment of death, or at least that you calculate everything from that moment (unless you take an alternate valuation date-- that's an extra complication but I don't think it affects your basic question).

Now if you sell the stocks and give B the proceeds, you are selling the stocks as an agent of B, not as an agent of A. So B owns the stocks, with the stepped-up basis, and is allowing you to make a sale for him/her/hir.

I am assuming that the will did not provide for this to happen and that you are doing this on your own initiative with the permission of B, or on B's initiative. If those assumptions aren't true, then my guess may not hold true. Also, I'm totally guessing and have no reason to think I'm right beyond logic and a very passing knowledge of the Internal Revenue Code.
posted by ohio at 7:13 PM on October 10, 2007

Applies in both cases, according to my tax lawyer+accountant friend.
posted by MD06 at 7:21 PM on October 10, 2007

Ohio makes sense to me and thanks MD06 for checking with your tax lawyer friend.
posted by retiree at 7:27 PM on October 10, 2007

I used to work in the stock brokerage industry as an administrator in branch offices.

Ohio is correct... part of my job was to determine date-of-death prices for cost basis computation for beneficiaries. The beneficiary receives the adjusted cost basis for tax purposes. I would have to prepare documented spreadsheets with DOD prices for each inherited equity. It doesn't matter when the equity is sold after the death of the original owner. Even if the position is held for years, the adjusted cost basis applies.
posted by Corky at 4:25 AM on October 11, 2007