Real Estate Taxes: Can You Deduct Them From Inherited Property

Added October 30, 2008 by Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin

Print Articles

Summary: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service allows tax payers to deduct some real estate taxes when they file. Can an owner of multiple properties deduct the property taxes from a recently inherited property? A Think Glink reader asks about deducting the property taxes from a property he inherited with his brother from their mother. Sam and Ilyce say it's pretty unlikely that the real estate or property taxes may be deducted because the property is neither a primary residence nor an investment property.

Q: I own two homes and share ownership with my brother of a third family house and property that is unoccupied. The third property was inherited from our mother this year. Can I deduct 50 percent of the property taxes on the inherited property from my federal income taxes?

A: In short, you probably can't deduct the real estate taxes on the inherited property.

That property is not an investment property so you can't deduct the taxes on that basis. You also won't be able to deduct the real estate taxes as the property is neither your primary home nor your second home. For now, you seem to be out of luck.

For more information, you might want to talk to an accountant or your tax preparer to see if there are other circumstances specific to your situation that might allow you to deduct those real estate taxes on your federal income tax form.

Oct. 30, 2008.

See more articles on this topic by clicking on the "RELATED ARTICLES" above and to the right.

We have over 5000 articles on Real Estate Advice, Personal Finance Advice and Consumer Advice on our site. We encourage you to look at these articles. As always, if you have a comment on our articles, don't forget to post your comment below. We thank you for coming to ThinkGlink.com.

© Ilyce R. Glink. All rights reserved. This content may not be used, distributed, syndicated, compiled or excerpted in any medium or form without written authorization from Think Glink, Inc. For information on syndicating ThinkGlink.com please contact us.

Previous article Next article