Also known as:tacking · tack holding periods · adverse possession tacking
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
2 senses
1
in property law
A doctrine permitting successive periods of adverse possession or prescriptive use by predecessors in privity to be combined to satisfy the statutory period. The periods combine when each possessor acts under a good-faith claim of right and the use remains continuous and uninterrupted.
2
in tax law
Sense 1
1
in property law
A doctrine permitting successive periods of adverse possession or prescriptive use by predecessors in privity to be combined to satisfy the statutory period. The periods combine when each possessor acts under a good-faith claim of right and the use remains continuous and uninterrupted.
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Cases
Examples
Sense 2
2
in tax law
A rule under which a transferee's holding period for property includes the transferor's holding period when the transferee takes a carryover basis. The tacked period determines whether gain or loss on a later disposition qualifies as long-term.
Examples1
Tacking Basis in Gifted Stock
Thomas Thompson receives shares of stock as a gift from his father. The father had held the shares for eighteen months before the transfer. When Thomas sells the shares nine months later, his total holding period includes the father's eighteen months because he takes a carryover basis.
1 common questions
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Test Yourself
6
Practice Questions1
A rule under which a transferee's holding period for property includes the transferor's holding period when the transferee takes a carryover basis. The tacked period determines whether gain or loss on a later disposition qualifies as long-term.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
1
Tacking Successive Farm Uses
The Johnson Partnership's predecessors began cultivating a disputed strip of Beth's orchard in the 1960s under a mistaken boundary stake. Successive family members continued planting crops, grazing cattle, and maintaining a shed and ditches on the strip without interruption. Because each generation acted under the same good-faith claim of right, the periods combine to satisfy the statutory requirement for adverse possession.
3 common questions
Students Frequently Ask...
When does privity allow tacking of successive adverse periods?
Privity exists when a later user succeeds to the precise claim of right asserted by the earlier user. A stock acquisition that transfers all business assets and rights, followed by identical continued operations by the same personnel, establishes the required privity for tacking.
Supporting sources
Does a temporary written agreement interrupt the continuity required for tacking?
A strictly temporary access agreement that expires without renewal does not interrupt continuity when the user immediately resumes the identical adverse use. The essential attitude of mind required for adverse use remains unbroken if no permanent subordination to the owner's title occurs.
Supporting sources
Does an unrecorded boundary mistake prevent tacking across generations?
An unrecorded mistaken boundary does not prevent tacking when each successive possessor continues the same good-faith agricultural use under the original error. The periods combine because the claim of right remains traceable to the same mistaken belief.
Supporting sources
Students Frequently Ask...
What holding period results when property is received from a decedent?
Property received from a decedent takes a basis equal to fair market value at death. If sold within one year of death, the property is deemed to have a long-term holding period regardless of the actual time held.
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