Can I deduct legal expenses paid against Capital gains for the use of legal cousel to sell a privately held company stock?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 5, 2019
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Valente2000Author

My wife and her siblings had inherrited several shares (very small minority interest <5%) of a privately held company. We utilized the services of external attorneys to negotiate a sale price of the shares back to the majority shareholders. Can the cost of the attorney fees be deducted against any capital gains?

MichaelL1

Employee

Yes, these would be selling expenses directly related to the sale of that stock.

When you take the cost of the stock (Fair Market Value at the date of death) add the legal fees to the cost basis to determine the adjusted basis of the stock in computing the capital gains.

Note: Inherited property is always Long term gain, regardless of how long how you held it.

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mgtconsult

Hello, MichaelL,

I am dealing with a similar situation and would like to know if you can provide the reference to the IRC that addresses this issue since we are trying to amend a tax return.