Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the TOD deed’s tax profile is its best feature, and it is three sentences long. Recording one is not a taxable gift — the transfer is revocable, so nothing complete has been given. At your death the beneficiary takes a full step-up in basis to date-of-death value (IRC §1014) — decades of appreciation exit the income-tax system. And the property remains in your estate for estate-tax purposes, which for the overwhelming majority of households under the federal exemption costs nothing.
What the step-up is worth
A house bought for $100,000 and worth $600,000 at death passes with a $600,000 basis — the beneficiary who sells promptly reports roughly zero gain. Compare gifting the house outright during life: the child takes YOUR $100,000 basis (§1015) and a later sale realizes ~$500,000 of gain. The dollars, computed on your numbers: the inherited home sale capital gains guide. This is also why the TOD deed beats joint tenancy with a child, which forfeits the step-up on the gifted half.
The two taxes people forget to ask about
Property-tax reassessment: recording a TOD deed generally changes nothing while you live (no ownership change occurred) — but at death, whether the beneficiary inherits your assessment or triggers reassessment is a state-by-state question with real dollars attached, and parent-child transfer rules vary sharply. State estate or inheritance tax: a TOD deed does not remove the property from either — nonprobate is not nontaxable. Where those taxes exist and bite: estate tax by state and the estate tax calculator.
The step-up is automatic. Coordinating it with everything else is not.
Basis planning across a house, retirement accounts and a brokerage is adviser work. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. It asks about nine questions — age, investable assets, location — then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text.
Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
Compare fees, scope, conflicts, credentials and fiduciary duty before you hire anyone.
The Kapitalwise form opens here — you stay on this page.
The number that surprises people who bought a long time ago
Downsizing is the one home sale where the gain is usually large and the exclusion usually still covers it. A couple who bought in 1994 for $180,000 and sell at $760,000 with $46,000 of selling costs have a realized gain of about $534,000 before improvements. That is above the $500,000 joint cap — but decades of capital improvements are exactly what brings it back under, and most sellers have never added them up.
Improvements are the lever, and the records are the constraint
A new roof, an addition, a replaced HVAC system, new windows, a finished basement: these add to basis. Repainting and repairs do not. Thirty years of improvements on a family home routinely total six figures, and every dollar of it reduces the gain dollar for dollar. The practical problem is documentary, not legal — the seller who kept receipts pays less than the identical seller who did not.
Why downsizers should check the net investment income tax separately
A retiree with modest ordinary income can still be pushed over the 3.8 percent NIIT threshold by the sale itself, because taxable gain is net investment income. The thresholds are $250,000 on a joint return and $200,000 otherwise, written into Section 1411(b) as fixed figures with no indexing. A sale that produces $120,000 of taxable gain on top of $180,000 of other income crosses the joint threshold and picks up 3.8 percent on the part above it.
The move itself may change the tax
Downsizing usually means moving, and sometimes across a state line. Some states tax the gain the federal exclusion just removed. If the sale and the move are in the same year, the order of the two matters, and it is worth checking the destination state before signing.
Related
Methodology
- Exclusion caps, the 2-of-5 test, the nonqualified-use allocation, the reduced-exclusion fraction and the depreciation carve-out are taken from the text of 26 U.S.C. 121. The 3.8 percent rate and its thresholds are from 26 U.S.C. 1411. Both were read on 2026-07-30.
- Section 121 caps and Section 1411 thresholds are written in the statute as fixed dollar amounts with no indexing mechanism, so they are built in. Long-term capital gain brackets ARE indexed annually, so your rate is an input rather than a lookup.
- Figures were computed by two independently written engines that agree to the cent, and the calculator on this page reproduces both exactly.
- Federal only. State treatment varies and some states do not follow the federal exclusion.
Educational estimate, not tax advice, and not a filed return. Federal only. Confirm anything that changes a filing decision with a CPA or tax attorney.
Editorial standards: Editorial Policy | Corrections | Disclaimer