You should think twice before quitclaiming your home to your kids before you pass away


The reason you should probably not quitclaim your home to your children before you pass away is because of negative tax implications whenever your children sell the property in the future. If the property has appreciated in value from the time you bought it, then it is likely that your children would need to pay tax on that appreciation when they sell it.

As an example, if you buy a property for $100,000 and later quitclaim the property to your son after it has appreciated to $500,000, there would be a capital gain of $400,000. Thus, if your son sells the property, your son may need to pay capital gain tax on the $400,000 of appreciation.

Instead of quitclaiming your home to your son in our example, you should enable your son to inherit the property. If your son inherits the property, the cost basis of the property for tax purposes would be the fair market value of the property at the time you pass away. For instance, if the fair market value of the property is $500,000 when you pass away, your son inherits the property, and your son immediately sells the property for $500,000, then there would be no profit to tax.

Instead of quitclaiming property to your children before you pass away, you should consider passing your property to your children by inheritance using an instrument that avoids probate. To accomplish that, you could use a trust or, in Florida, a lady bird deed.