Selling Mineral Rights: Understanding Inherited Mineral Rights
If you have inherited mineral rights, it's important to understand what they are and how they can benefit you. Mineral rights are the ownership of minerals, oil, and gas underneath the surface of a property. When someone owns the mineral rights to a property, they have the right to explore, extract, and sell the minerals that lie beneath the surface. The most important thing to know about inherited mineral rights is that when you sell mineral rights, you can save a fortune in taxes. With inherited mineral rights, you get a step-up basis. This step-up basis means you pay substantially less in taxes when you sell mineral rights. What is a Step-Up Basis? A step-up basis is a tax term that refers to the increase in the value of an inherited asset at the time of the original owner's death. Inherited assets, such as mineral rights, are typically valued at their fair market value at the time of the original owner's death. This means that when you inherit mineral rights, the val...