Is this something to worry about?

[Calvin Rankin]

My wife is adopted but met her birth mom some years ago so we do have contact with her. The birth mom is a very shady person who does a lot of highly questionable things which is why I'm asking this question here. The birth mom has a property in Los Angeles which she purchased in the early 90's. Originally the property was a restaurant but the birth mom rented it out 20 years ago to a lady who converted it to a store. The lady has always paid her rent which the birth mom uses to pay the property taxes. However, over the entire 20 years the birth mom never paid any of the income tax on the rent she received. She said that she was never aware that she was supposed to do so until she recently spoke to her lawyer about possibly selling the property. That's when the lawyer pointed out that she would be responsible for paying all back income taxes immediately upon the sale of the property. To avoid having to do this she came up with the idea of quick-deeding the property over to my wife and I and we would be free to do with the property as we pleased. The property is very run down and in a very run down part of town so I was thinking of wholesaling it because we wouldn't want to keep it. If we took it and wholesaled it then any amount we got we be profit since we wouldn't be paying anything to get it. However, because of the shadiness of the birth mom I am highly concerned that responsibility for paying the back income tax would somehow be shifted to us as well as the new owners. Is this something that I should worry about or am I simply being too suspicious of the birth mom's highly suspect character?

[James Miller]

Eeek. I wouldn't touch that transaction; if California has adopted the UFTA, that not only is a transfer not-for-value, but also a transfer to an insider, and should be rescindable, whether you keep it or wholesale it. Also, because you *know* there are owed back taxes on it, a semi-decent prosecutor can probably argue conspiracy and have you charged with the same felony as the mom. 

The IRS is sometimes *very* slow to move; but once they move it's like an avalanche and you don't want to be on the receiving end of their collections arm / prosecution arm.

Check with a lawyer and CPA in your state just to be sure. But, that sounds a high-risk low-reward behaviour.