I would like to buy out my STBXW for our house, she is open to that. We have had two realtors give us numbers for values.

My question concerns adjusting the value for taxes due to gains and future selling fees. Can this be done in this situation even though the house is not being sold as part of the settlement? When a house is sold as part of a settlement, there are obviously selling fees, and each person would have to pay taxes on their gains. I guess I am curious what others have done in similar situations.

Thank you.

You have to use an independent appraiser.

You both split the fees and if you have been in the house over 2 years, there is no capital gains taxes.

However you will have to split the property taxes.

I'm going through this with my stbxw, however she has let the house go to foreclosure, but the judge has ruled an appraisal on the house and I get half the equity over the purchase price now even though she mortgaged it to 100%.

With my STBX, we agreed to split the value of the home based on what we paid for it. We owned it together for 8 years so the value of it was substantially higher. He agreed to this because (a) he wanted out as quickly as possible so he could move in with OW and cut all ties with me and (b) because the house did need a substantial amount of (cosmetic) work that would result in a reduced selling price had we put it on the market. At least that was the argument I used to reduce my buyout. So technically I walked away with over $70K in equity that we didn't divide.

I'm not sure about your jurisdiction but here you are allowed to write your own separation agreement which is legally enforcable. When you do this, you can divide assets in any manner that you can agree upon. If you take it to the courts, they are divided 50/50 down to the last piece of cutlery. In that case, you have to get an independent appraisal of the house.

My X agreed to buy me out, as he wanted to stay. However, he took 18 months from agreement time before he actually purchased it.

I got 3 realtor appraisala for the market value the house which I gave to him. He got one, which I never saw. He agreed to buy me out for the agreed upon market value (an average) less the 6% realtor fees.

We didn't discuss the tax implications as the appreciation did not exceed that which was allowed without claiming capital gains. However, he needed to refinance in order to buy me out, which should also serve to decrease his future capital gains.

Unless you are in California (with extraordinary appreciation), are the tax implications really an issue? Perhaps you make it part of your decree that the appreciated value of the home would be exempt from Capital gains tax due to the payout to buy out his portion.