Because ownership transferred to you and your siblings before the sale, you do not file Form 3520 again just for receiving your share of the sale proceeds; you report the sale on Form 8949 and Schedule D.
“I previously filed Form 3520 when ownership of my late mom's foreign house transferred to me and my siblings. The house finally sold and I just received my portion of the proceeds. Do I need to file Form 3520 again, and if not, how does the IRS know the money came from the sold house rather than a new gift?”
Summary
You do not need the IRS to identify the wire by guesswork: your tax return reports the inherited-property sale, and your documents connect the earlier inheritance to the title, closing, ownership allocation, and deposit. The only hard part is confirming that the heirs—not an estate or trust—were the legal sellers.
The decisive question is who legally owned and sold the house at closing.
If title had already transferred to the heirs, your payment is your share of proceeds from selling an asset you owned—not a new gift or bequest. Do not file another Form 3520 merely to label the wire; report the inherited-property sale on Form 8949 and Schedule D, then prove its source with the inheritance, title, closing, allocation, and bank records.
If the remained the owner, sold the house, and then distributed cash, apply Form 3520 Part IV to what you actually received that year. File when aggregate covered foreign gifts or bequests exceed $100,000; Form 3520 is generally due on the 15th day of the fourth month after year-end.
If a owned the house or proceeds, complete Form 3520 Part III for the distribution. Part III, rather than the Part IV foreign-gift threshold, controls this branch.
A prior Form 3520 does not replace a later form if the earlier filing and the current payment represent two genuinely different reportable receipts.
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Next steps
These steps create the paper trail the IRS would use to distinguish your sale proceeds from a new foreign gift.
Before choosing a form
Match the legal seller to the inheritance records
If the closing documents name you and your siblings as owners/sellers, use the direct-owner branch and do not file Form 3520 solely for the wire. If they name a foreign estate, apply Part IV’s aggregate $100,000 test; if they name a foreign trust, use Part III.
Requirements
Before preparing the return
Reconcile your exact share of the proceeds
Create a one-page reconciliation from total net sale proceeds to your ownership percentage and the exact amount deposited. Keep any amount above or below that calculation separately explained rather than treating the whole wire as sale proceeds.
Requirements
For the tax year of sale
Calculate basis, proceeds, and U.S.-dollar gain
Your inherited is generally your share of the house’s date-of-death fair market value, unless the executor validly elected the alternate valuation date. Express reportable amounts in U.S. dollars using the applicable prevailing exchange rate; subtract your share of basis from your share of net proceeds to determine or loss.
Requirements
With the federal return for the closing year
Report the inherited-property sale
If the sale closed in 2026, include it with your 2026 Form 1040 filed in 2027. Use Form 8949 Part II, enter “INHERITED” in column (b), report your share of the sale even if no Form 1099-S was issued, and carry the result to Schedule D.
Requirements
For the same calendar or tax year
Handle any foreign-account or foreign-tax filing
E-file if aggregate covered foreign accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time. Attach to the income-tax return if its applicable asset threshold was exceeded. If eligible foreign income tax was imposed on the same sale income, calculate the credit on Form 1116.
Requirements
After filing
Keep the full evidence file
Keep the property records until the limitation period expires for the return covering the sale. These documents—not a duplicate Form 3520—show that the deposit came from disposing of an inherited ownership interest.
Requirements
Legal sources
This answer rests on current IRS Form 3520 and Form 8949 guidance, IRS inherited-property and recordkeeping rules, and FinCEN’s FBAR rule.
IRC 6039F; Form 3520 Part IV
Form 3520 Part IV covers current-year foreign gifts and bequests above the stated aggregate threshold—not proceeds from selling property the recipient already owned.
Form 3520 Part IV
In general, a foreign gift or bequest is any amount received from a person other than a U.S. person (a foreign person) that the recipient treats as a gift or bequest and excludes from gross income. For gifts or bequests from a nonresident alien or foreign estate, you are required to report the receipt of such gifts or bequests only if the aggregate amount received from that nonresident alien or foreign estate, or foreign person that you know or have reason to know are related to the nonresident alien or foreign estate, exceeds $100,000 during the taxable year.
Form 3520 Part III
A payment from a foreign trust follows the trust-distribution rules rather than Part IV’s gift/bequest threshold.
Form 3520 Part III
Distributions from a foreign trust are reportable on Part III of Form 3520.
IRS Gifts & Inheritances FAQ
The sale of inherited property belongs on the capital-gain forms when a return is required.
Generally, the gross proceeds from the sale of inherited property are included in gross income when considering the need to file. If there’s a filing requirement, report the sale on Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses, Capital Gains and Losses") and on Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets :
IRC 1014; IRS Gifts & Inheritances FAQ
The usual inherited-property basis is date-of-death fair market value, and a sale above basis produces taxable gain.
To determine if the sale of inherited property is taxable, you must first determine your basis in the property. The basis of property inherited from a decedent is generally one of the following: The fair market value (FMV) of the property on the date of the decedent's death (whether or not the executor of the estate files an estate tax return ( Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return Tax Return") ). If you sell the property for more than your basis, you have a taxable gain.
2025 Instructions for Form 8949
Real-estate sales must be entered on Form 8949 even without a U.S. information statement such as Form 1099-S.
General Instructions
Enter all sales and exchanges of capital assets, including stocks, bonds, digital assets, and real estate (if not reported on line 1a or 8a of Schedule D or on Form 4684, 4797, 6252, 6781, or 8824). Include these transactions even if you didn't receive a Form 1099-B, Form 1099-DA, or Form 1099-S (or substitute statement) for the transaction.
2025 Instructions for Form 8949
Inherited property is generally reported as long-term, and Form 8949 tells the filer to put INHERITED in the acquisition-date column.
Part II
Generally, if you disposed of property that you acquired by inheritance, report the disposition as a long-term gain (or loss) regardless of how long you held the property. Enter “INHERITED” in column (b).
IRS Topic No. 305, Recordkeeping
The taxpayer keeps the evidence that connects the inheritance, ownership, sale, and wire and establishes basis.
How long should I keep records?
Keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property in a taxable disposition. You must keep these records to figure your basis for computing gain or loss when you sell or otherwise dispose of the property.
IRS Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates
Foreign-currency sale and basis amounts used on the U.S. return must be translated into U.S. dollars using the applicable prevailing rate.
Foreign currency exchange rates
You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars. If you receive all or part of your income or pay some or all of your expenses in foreign currency, you must translate the foreign currency into U.S. dollars. Use the exchange rate prevailing when you receive, pay, or accrue the item.
FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR)
A brief deposit of sale proceeds can trigger FBAR because the test uses the maximum aggregate foreign-account value at any time.
A United States person that has a financial interest in or signature authority over foreign financial accounts must file an FBAR if the aggregate value of the foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.
IRS Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements
The house itself is outside both account forms when held directly, but a foreign account containing the proceeds can be within both.
Types of foreign assets table
|Financial (deposit and custodial) accounts held at foreign financial institutions |Yes |Yes | |Foreign real estate held directly |No |No |
IRS Publication 544 (2025)
A loss is not deductible if the inherited house was held for personal use.
Capital or ordinary gain or loss
Loss from the sale or exchange of property held for personal use is not deductible.
Form 1116; Foreign Tax Credit
Eligible foreign income tax on the same sale income may support a U.S. foreign tax credit claimed on Form 1116.
If you paid or accrued foreign taxes to a foreign country or U.S. possession and are subject to U.S. tax on the same income, you may be able to take either a credit or an itemized deduction for those taxes. File Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust)") , to claim the foreign tax credit if you are an individual, estate or trust, and you paid or accrued certain foreign taxes to a foreign country or U.S. possession.
These are the official rules as published on the cited dates; tax forms, thresholds, and rules can change.
This is general information about official processes, not legal advice, and SettleKit is not a law firm.
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