The home’s value now is about $200,000. She has never put my name on the deed but says she will. Should I show that I have invested more than $100,000 in the house? Should the deed be joint ownership with survivorship?

Our first thought was whether you have discussed the home, your investment in the home and your plan for the home with your sibling. Our second thought was whether it makes a difference (tax or otherwise) to add you on the title now or down the road.

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We gather from your question that you put in $100,000 by adding on to your mom’s home but that the addition may not have increased the value of the home on a dollar-for-dollar basis. (That’s pretty common for home improvements, by the way. They rarely increase the value of the home on the dollar-in-dollar-out basis.)

It may not matter what the value of the home was before you moved in or what the value of the home is now. The real issue for us is whether your sibling expects to receive cash or property from your mom’s estate once she dies and the assets are distributed. If your sibling has no expectations and you and your sibling get along quite well, whatever you do (stay in the home or sell it and some split the proceeds) may not matter.

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From a federal income tax perspective, if your parents’ estate consists of only the home and some accounts with small amounts, your parents wouldn’t have an estate tax issue to deal with. Current federal estate tax rules allow individuals to pass up to $5,450,000 to their heirs without paying estate taxes, and we’re assuming you fall below that level.

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Your parents seem to have owned the home as their primary residence. If they were both living when they sold it, they wouldn’t pay any federal income tax on the sale, since they would be allowed to exclude up to $500,000 in gains (profits) from the sale of the home. (The home sale exclusion allows an individual who uses his or her home as a primary residence for two of the past five years to exclude from federal income tax up to $250,000 in gains, and married couples can exclude up to $500,000 in gains, provided they meet all of the other rules.)

Here’s how this might have played out: Your parents likely purchased the home years ago. If we assume they purchased it for $75,000 several decades ago and you put on a $100,000 addition, there would be almost no profit to be had from the sale of the home today. (The $100,000 plus the $75,000 along with closing costs would leave little, if any, profit.) If your mom puts you on the title to the home today, she would essentially give you half of the home’s value. That shouldn’t have any tax implications for you, since you put in $100,000 or about half of the home’s value, but you would want to discuss it with your tax preparer or accountant to be sure.

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Generally, giving a home is a bit more convoluted than inheriting a home. Inheriting it is usually a better alternative, as there is usually a financial benefit to inheriting a home over being gifted a home (or portion thereof).

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One benefit to co-owning the home with your mom, in your specific situation, is that at the time of her death, if you own the home as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, you would automatically become the owner of the home. You wouldn’t need to go to probate court and have title of the home transferred to your name. Having said this, it would be good to know that your sibling is on board with all that you are doing and doesn’t feel left out or that you have taken advantage of either him or her or your mom.

We generally recommend that parents put their home in a living trust or make sure their will covers how they want their assets to be handled after they die. But in some situations, it could be easier for the family to simply put the home in another family member’s name and leave it at that — even if that causes a tax issue down the line.

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This may be your situation, but you’ll have to see what your parents’ total estate holdings are, determine any real estate tax problems a sale may create (including possibly increasing property taxes) and make sure that you maintain harmony in the family. Because if you do this without consulting your sibling, who feels as if you left him or her out of the planning or the ultimate financial bequest, you’ll have even bigger issues to deal with.

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Above all, we think you should talk to someone about your situation and make sure you don’t miss anything. An accountant, enrolled agent or estate planner might be a good source of information for you.