Tax Purposes

Dear Mr. Azrael: Is there a relatively easy way to transfer ownership of property from one sibling to another? Also, are there any tax implications for either sibling in this transfer? Christine Beauregard Pasadena Dear Ms. Beauregard: The state of Maryland and local counties impose taxes on the transfer of real property. The state transfer tax is one-half percent of the purchase price. The state also imposes a recordation tax. The rate varies among counties but typically is 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent of the purchase price.

The video sounds like a satire: A young man and woman, dressed as caricatures of a pimp and prostitute, walk into the Baltimore office of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, and spin an outrageous story about how the woman needs help buying a house to set up as a brothel for underage Salvadoran girls - and rather than kick them to the curb, two volunteers give them advice on how to avoid paying taxes on their illicit enterprise....

Members of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants are answering readers' tax questions through April 15.Q: When a husband and wife jointly own a stock and one dies, what are the tax consequences if the surviving partner wants to sell 50 percent of the shares held in the joint name? What would be the tax consequences if the stock was not sold and the surviving partner dies and the stock is inherited? What is the basis of the tax there?A: The tax consequences to the survivor depends on what shares were actually sold.

Where did millionaires go? After reading Matthew Weinstein's rebuttal ("Millionaires ready to contribute," May 15) to Laura Smitherman's article ("Top payers fade away," May 14), I have to conclude that he has missed the point entirely. To argue whether taxpayers who earn more than $1 million are vacating Maryland is a sidebar to the real issue. The fact is, we are losing revenue because of a flawed economic policy. Raising income taxes on any group of citizens at the onset of a recession, and basing revenue projections off of nonrecession years, is a fundamental misunderstanding of economics.

Q: Several years ago, I briefly became interested in so-called penny stocks and purchased several different ones. They have turned out to be "cents-less" investments.I'd like to unload them this year for tax purposes, but for the most part, the proceeds won't even cover the broker commission fees. Is there a provision for reporting such stocks as tax write-offs without actually selling them?A: Yours is really a three-part question:1) What is the Internal Revenue Service definition of "worthless securities"?

We want your opinions THE ISSUE: A state survey released recently found that the average one-year assessment increase for residential properties reached nearly 27 percent in Annapolis, compared with 24 percent in other areas of Anne Arundel County, including Crofton and South County. The state reassesses properties every three years and phases the increases in over that period. Tax bills won't increase the full percentage for homeowners because state law limits assessment increases - for tax purposes - to no more than 10 percent.

Members of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants are answering readers tax questions through April 15. My son gets survivor benefits from the Air Force. Does that have to be claimed as income and taxes paid on it? Do you have to pay state income tax on that money? The Survivor Benefit Plan of the Armed Forces is a type of retirement plan that provides annuity benefits to the participant and also provides benefits to the participant's survivors if he or she elected to do so. The benefits are fully taxable for federal and Maryland income tax purposes.

A FEDERAL court decision is focusing new light on an issue that could affect large numbers of American homeowners who expect to cash in their equity tax-free. In a nutshell: Is it possible for you to own two or more homes, but fail to qualify any one of them as your "principal residence" for federal capital gains tax purposes? Could you be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars in capital gains taxes because you have multiple homes, but no principal residence? A U.S. District Court in Arizona says the answer is yes. And that answer should set off alarm bells among the millions of Americans who own at least two houses, and plan to pocket hefty sale profits tax-free from one or more of them.

Abroad, if not unanimous, majority of Congress agrees that 23 million middle-income Americans - including 553,000 in Maryland - should be spared the bite this year of the ever-voracious alternative minimum tax. But taxpayers and tax collectors are getting very nervous because the annual AMT rescue hasn't happened yet. Worse, House and Senate Democrats are not in agreement about how the $50 billion in lost revenues should be offset by raising other taxes...

Ed of Randallstown has death and taxes on his mind. "I am interested in what happens to inherited stock from a tax perspective," he writes in an e-mail. He wants to know the consequences under a variety of scenarios: What if he doesn't know how much he paid for the stock? What if he donates it to charity? What if he gives stock to relatives? Not knowing how much you paid for a stock - the cost basis - is problematic. And potentially costly. In these cases, the Internal Revenue Service assumes the cost basis is zero, says Jeff Gonya, an estate planning lawyer in Baltimore.

With college costs acting like a Grinch on stressed-out household finances, families can't afford to miss out on tax savings they can secure with a little end-of-the-year planning. Whether you are paying off loans for your education or paying tuition for a child in college or technical school, you can enlist Uncle Sam to help you. And you should, because most families need all the help they can get. Here are some steps to take before year's end. When parents or students pay for tuition for technical training, college or graduate school, Uncle Sam will help, sometimes with more than a $2,000 refund on taxes each year if income levels fall within a particular range.

We want your opinions THE ISSUE: A state survey released recently found that the average one-year assessment increase for residential properties reached nearly 27 percent in Annapolis, compared with 24 percent in other areas of Anne Arundel County, including Crofton and South County. The state reassesses properties every three years and phases the increases in over that period. Tax bills won't increase the full percentage for homeowners because state law limits assessment increases - for tax purposes - to no more than 10 percent.

THE CATACLYSMIC losses that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on Gulf Coast property owners shine fresh light on a murky corner of the federal tax code: tax write-offs for storm damage to houses. It's a subject worth the attention of any homeowner, anywhere in the country, since it applies not just to monster hurricanes, but to floods, tornadoes, fires and earthquakes. The Internal Revenue Code allows owners of houses damaged by natural disasters to seek and obtain tax relief for losses not covered by insurance.

A FEDERAL court decision is focusing new light on an issue that could affect large numbers of American homeowners who expect to cash in their equity tax-free. In a nutshell: Is it possible for you to own two or more homes, but fail to qualify any one of them as your "principal residence" for federal capital gains tax purposes? Could you be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars in capital gains taxes because you have multiple homes, but no principal residence? A U.S. District Court in Arizona says the answer is yes. And that answer should set off alarm bells among the millions of Americans who own at least two houses, and plan to pocket hefty sale profits tax-free from one or more of them.

My mother-in-law still lives in her home of 45 years, but she transferred the title to my wife and sister-in-law. We're wondering now about the possible tax consequences of that move. The home was bought for about $25,000 and is now worth $125,000. Also, it's possible my mother-in-law may want to sell her house sometime. If so, wouldn't we need to change the title before the sale? Otherwise, wouldn't my wife and sister-in-law have to pay taxes on the profit? Was there a better way to handle this?

Dear Mr. Azrael: Is there a relatively easy way to transfer ownership of property from one sibling to another? Also, are there any tax implications for either sibling in this transfer? Christine Beauregard Pasadena Dear Ms. Beauregard: The state of Maryland and local counties impose taxes on the transfer of real property. The state transfer tax is one-half percent of the purchase price. The state also imposes a recordation tax. The rate varies among counties but typically is 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent of the purchase price.