In 2009, my husband inherited some real estate from his brother. We thought we were going to sell it right away and didn't have it appraised. We ended up hanging onto it for five years and just recently sold it.

Now I'm trying to figure out if I need to put anything away to cover the capital gains tax. I understand that we will pay on the difference between the value of the property when his brother died in 2009 and the amount we got for it in 2014. Since I don't have a 2009 appraisal, can I use the County Treasurer's 2009 valuation for my 2009 basis? It's really the only thing I have.

After the housing market crashed, our County Treasurer was pretty slow to decrease property values so the 2009 valuation is quite a lot higher than what we actually got for the property in 2014.

Thanks so much!!