If gifted a property by living relative, what to list under Purhcase Price of this property? Taking from the CSS HINT for this question we did not contribute to the purchase (from the 1970’s) so would it be $0? - (FROM CSS HINT: Enter the purchase price or market value at the time the property was acquired. If the property was acquired with others, enter only your parents’ portion of the value.)
If your parents were gifted 100% of the property, they need to enter the current market price. That is the amount that the property is worth, representing money that schools will expect that they could obtain through either selling the property or borrowing against its value.
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I would interpret that hint to be suggesting if you were gifted a property, the time the property was acquired is the time at which it was gifted to you, and since it was a gift you should use the market value at the time it was gifted to you.
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Assets are expected to be reported using market value on the day that the Profile is filed. However, in reading the hint that was added later to the original post, I don’t know what they actually want. It makes no sense to me.
My understanding is that question is to see if people are trying to hide assets that could be used for college by purchasing new large homes - so I doubt it matters much what you put for a transaction from 1970.
From a tax basis position, the purchase price of a gift is the original price the gift giver paid - so you could use that, you could also argue it was the value when it was given. I don’t think this is a case where it was acquired with others, that would typically mean shared ownership.
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My understanding is for both your primary residence and rental properties, the CSS Profile asks for both the current value and the purchase price. So I think you are correct as to the current value question, but I believe the OP is asking about the purchase price question.
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OP, is the question you are asking about required to complete?
It used to be (maybe two years ago) that you put in current value for all parents’ investments. Then another (required) question asked if the parents had real estate holdings beyond a personal home (yes or no).
The answer to that question triggered a battery of questions starting with a required question of how many other real estate holdings beyond a primary home the parents had. Then, all of the following real estate value/other questions about that property were not required.
So, double check this. Make it easy on yourself and don’t answer questions that are not required. I promise you the schools are going to get the info they want from all the documents you ultimately submit. Let them do the work.
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