Manage Asset Cost Basis
EstateExec will estimate the cost basis of assets for you automatically, based on information you provide for Asset Type and Value at Death (or Purchase Amount for assets later purchased by the estate).
You can see an asset's estimated cost basis by highlighting the asset's row in the Assets tab, and clicking the Cost Basis button on the top of the table.
Please note that calculating cost basis can be complex under certain circumstances, so you are advised to seek help from a tax professional if you are dealing with complex or unusual situations. The good news is that cost basis is only needed if you sell an asset, in which case you will need it to be able to report losses or gains on the estate's income tax submissions. It also helpful to pass along these estimates to the heirs, so that when and if they eventually sell the assets, they will have information to help them with their own tax reporting. If you do pass along this information, please remember to repeat the advice about these being your best estimates, and that they should seek help from a tax professional if there is any complexity, or there is any uncertainty about the tax situation.
Cost Basis at Death
An asset has a certain cost basis at the time of death, which never changes (unless you modify the asset's Value at Death). See Cost Basis for a general description of how cost basis at death is determined.
Cost Basis Now
The current cost basis associated with an asset can change under certain circumstances:
- Transfer: If you transfer value from one asset to another, the associated portion of the asset's current cost basis is also automatically transferred.
- Distribution: If you distribute some or all of an asset to an heir, the associated portion of the asset's current cost basis is automatically allocated to that distribution. You can see the cost basis allocated to a distribution in the Cost Basis column on the Distributions tab.
- Sale or Discard: If you sell or discard an asset, the asset's value and cost basis automatically drop to nothing, since the asset is no longer in the estate.
- Purchase: If you purchase an asset for the estate, its value and cost basis at death will be null, since the asset was not part of the estate at death. The initial cost basis "now" will be set to the purchase price.
- Repayment: When the recipient of an estate loan repays some or all of the principal, the cost basis of the loan asset will be reduced proportionately with the repayment amount.
When the estate is completely settled, no assets should remain in the estate, and thus the value and cost basis "now" of all listed assets should be nothing.
Manual Override
You can manually override EstateExec's cost basis estimates. On the Assets tab:
- Select the asset by clicking its row selector checkmark in the leftmost column.
- Click the "Cost Basis" button at the top of the Assets table.
- Enter the correct amount in the dialog that appears and click the "OK" button.
- As always, whenever you want to save your estate changes, click the "Save All" button in the top right corner.
Note that changing an asset's cost basis will not affect previously defined transfers or distributions marked done.
Assistance Required
EstateExec cannot automatically determine cost basis for certain asset types (such as Other), and so for those, when you select the type, you will be presented with a dialog to manually enter the cost basis. You can later change this via the Manual Override steps listed above.