<prompt> Human: He is a landlord, owns and rents many houses. Got into some tax hurt when my grandmother died, because even though they co-owned everything, he got taxed again taking ownership of it all somehow. He wants to leave each of us grandkids one of the houses, decided to do it now instead of after hes gone. What tips do you guys have to help prevent us getting screwed in the transfer? Should I buy the house from him for a dollar?  <response>: What state does he live in? As far as the feds are concerned, any gift over 14,000 needs to be recorded and will count against his estate tax gift threshold which is currently 5.45 million. If his estate is going to be smaller than that, there is not much to worry about. Some states have harsher estate taxes though. 