Putting Your House in a Trust in California: What Happens to the Property Tax
Most California estate plans move the family home into a revocable living trust. The transfer is recorded like a sale, which is why owners ask whether it resets their Proposition 13 value or costs transfer tax. It does neither. The questions that matter come later: when the trust becomes irrevocable, when the person who made it dies, and whether the people who inherit can keep the old assessment under Proposition 19. This page sets out each step with the Revenue and Taxation Code section that governs it.
Quick answer
A transfer into your own revocable trust is not a change in ownership (§62(d)) and carries no transfer tax (§11930). The Homeowners' Exemption continues. At the settlor's death the trust becomes irrevocable and the home is treated as passing to the beneficiaries: a spouse's share stays excluded (§63); a child's share stays excluded only for a family home the child moves into within a year, up to the Prop 19 value limit (§63.2); anyone else's share is reassessed. File BOE-502-D within 150 days of the death and BOE-19-P within three years.
Eight trust events and what each does to the assessment
| Event | Reassessment? | Documentary transfer tax? | Form and deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| You deed your home into your own revocable living trust | No — excluded (§62(d)) | No — §11930; no consideration | BOE-502-A with the trust transfer deed |
| You take the home back out of your revocable trust (to refinance, for example) | No — same beneficial owner (§62(d)) | No | BOE-502-A |
| You put the home into an irrevocable trust for your spouse | No — excluded (§63, through Rule 462.160) | No — §11930 | BOE-502-A |
| You put the home into an irrevocable trust for your children | Reassessed unless §63.2 applies (family home, child moves in within a year, value limit) | No — gift (§11930) | BOE-502-A; BOE-19-P |
| The settlor dies; the trust becomes irrevocable; a child inherits the family home and moves in | No, up to the §63.2 value limit; the excess over the limit is added to the assessment | No — §11930 | BOE-502-D within 150 days; BOE-19-P within three years |
| The settlor dies; a child inherits a rental or second home | Yes — reassessed at market value as of the date of death | No — §11930 | BOE-502-D within 150 days |
| The settlor dies; the surviving spouse is sole beneficiary | No — interspousal exclusion (§63) | No | BOE-502-D within 150 days |
| The trustee sells the home to a third party | Yes — ordinary sale | Yes — §11911 county tax, plus any city tax | BOE-502-A by the buyer |
Reassessment means a new base-year value at market value for the interest that changed hands (§110.1) and a supplemental bill for the rest of the year (§75.10 and following). For inherited homes, the reassessment-after-death guide and the Prop 19 calculator work the numbers.
Revocable trusts: §62(d)
Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) excludes from “change in ownership” any transfer by the trustor, or the trustor's spouse or registered domestic partner, into a trust for so long as the transferor is the present beneficiary or the trust is revocable, and any transfer by a trustee back to the trustor. The Board of Equalization's Property Tax Rule 462.160 applies the same rule to the trust's later life: a revocable trust is looked through, so the settlor stays the owner for assessment purposes, and the home's factored base-year value is untouched. Nothing on the tax side changes until the trust can no longer be revoked.
The recorder still needs a BOE-502-A with the trust transfer deed (§480.3); its Part 1 has a box for “transfer to a revocable trust” and for “the transferor is the present beneficiary”. Checking the right box is what keeps the assessor from opening a change-in-ownership file.
Irrevocable trusts and the day a revocable trust becomes one
When a trust is irrevocable, Rule 462.160 treats the transfer into it as a transfer to whoever holds the present beneficial interest. The exclusions then apply as if the settlor had deeded the home to those beneficiaries directly:
- Spouse or registered domestic partner as beneficiary: excluded, no limit (§63, §62(p)).
- Child or parent as beneficiary: excluded only under Proposition 19's §63.2: the home must have been the transferor's principal residence, the child must make it theirs within a year and file for the Homeowners' or Disabled Veterans' Exemption, and only the factored base-year value plus the BOE-adjusted allowance (over $1 million) is excluded; the excess is added to the assessment.
- Anyone else: a change in ownership of that beneficiary's share, reassessed at market value as of the transfer date.
- A trust that only gives income to a beneficiary for life and then passes the home on is read as a transfer to the life beneficiary first, then another change in ownership when the life interest ends (§61(g), Rule 462.160(b)). Each step is tested separately.
The usual moment all of this applies is the settlor's death, when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable by its own terms. The change in ownership is dated at the death (§61(h)), not at the later distribution deed.
After the death: the two forms and the two clocks
- BOE-502-D within 150 days. §480(b) requires the trustee (or the transferee) to file a Change in Ownership Statement — Death of Real Property Owner with the assessor within 150 days of the death for a trust or other non-probate transfer; where the estate is probated, the personal representative files it with the inventory and appraisal. Not filing exposes the estate to the §482 penalty and extends the assessor's escape look-back to eight years (§532(b)(2)).
- BOE-19-P within three years. The parent-child claim is timely within three years of the transfer, before the home is transferred again, or, in the statute's words, if it is “filed within six months after the date of mailing of a notice of supplemental or escape assessment, issued as a result of the purchase or transfer” (§63.2(f)(1)(B)). A claim filed after every window applies prospectively only (§63.2(f)(3)).
The escape assessment guide explains what happens when a trust transfer is discovered years later, and the SB 293 extensions for homes lost in the 2025 Los Angeles fires.
Documentary transfer tax: §11930
The state act exempts transfers into trust by gift or at death:
Any tax imposed pursuant to this part shall not apply to any deed, instrument, or other writing which purports to grant, assign, transfer, convey, divide, allocate, or vest lands, tenements, or realty, or any interest therein, if by reason of such inter vivos gift or by reason of the death of any person, such lands, tenements, realty, or interests therein are transferred outright to, or in trust for the benefit of, any person or entity.
A transfer into your own trust also fails the §11911 threshold on its own terms: there is no consideration over $100. The trustee's later sale to a third party is an ordinary taxable transfer; the transfer tax calculator gives the county and city amounts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does putting my house in a living trust trigger a property tax reassessment in California?
No, for a revocable trust. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) excludes a transfer by the trustor (or the trustor's spouse or registered domestic partner) into a trust for so long as the transferor is the trust's present beneficiary or the trust is revocable; a trust held for a spouse's benefit is excluded by §63(a) instead. Your Prop 13 base-year value, factored value and Homeowners' Exemption all continue. The assessor still needs the BOE-502-A Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with the recorded trust transfer deed, with the trust box checked.
Is there transfer tax when I deed my home to my trust?
No. §11930 exempts any deed by which realty is transferred "in trust for the benefit of" any person by gift or at death, and a transfer into your own trust is not a sale: there is no consideration over $100, so §11911 does not reach it either. Cities with their own transfer tax follow the same logic; some ask for an exemption code on the deed (Los Angeles, for example, uses its own list).
What about an irrevocable trust?
A transfer into an irrevocable trust is treated as a transfer to the trust's present beneficiaries (Property Tax Rule 462.160). If the beneficiary is you or your spouse it is excluded; if it is your child, the Prop 19 parent-child exclusion in §63.2 applies only to a family home the child moves into within a year, with the value limit; if it is anyone else, the property is reassessed. The same test applies the day a revocable trust becomes irrevocable, usually at the settlor's death.
What happens to the property tax when the person who made the trust dies?
The trust becomes irrevocable and the change in ownership is dated at the death (§61(h): interests that vest in persons other than the trustor when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable; §62(d) no longer applies). The trustee files BOE-502-D, Change in Ownership Statement — Death of Real Property Owner, within 150 days (§480(b); in a probated estate the personal representative files it with the inventory and appraisal). If a child inherits the family home and moves in within a year, BOE-19-P claims the §63.2 exclusion; the parent's factored base-year value plus the BOE-adjusted allowance ($1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027) stays untaxed. A surviving spouse's share is excluded under §63 with no limit.
How long do I have to claim the parent-child exclusion for a home that came through a trust?
Within three years of the transfer, or before the home is transferred to a third party or the child stops living in it, whichever comes first (§63.2(f)(1)(A)). Under §63.2(f)(1)(B) a claim is also treated as timely if it is "filed within six months after the date of mailing of a notice of supplemental or escape assessment, issued as a result of the purchase or transfer". A later claim applies only from the lien date of the year it is filed (§63.2(f)(3)).
Does the Homeowners' Exemption continue after the home goes into a trust?
Yes, as long as the owner who lives there is the trust's beneficiary. The exemption attaches to the dwelling occupied by its owner as a principal residence (§218), and the BOE treats the trust beneficiary who lives in the home as the owner for this purpose. Nothing needs to be refiled for the transfer into your own trust. A beneficiary who moves in after the settlor's death files BOE-266 in their own name.
Learn More
Sources: Revenue and Taxation Code §§61(h), 62(d), 62(p), 63, 63.2, 75, 110.1, 218, 480–482, 532 and 11911–11934, Legislature's bulk data (build of October 18, 2026); §11930 and §63.2(f) are quoted verbatim, the rest paraphrased with the section cited. Board of Equalization Property Tax Rule 462.160 (trusts) and forms BOE-502-A, BOE-502-D and BOE-19-P (current revisions on the forms page). Educational information, not legal or tax advice; trusts also raise estate, gift and income-tax (basis) questions that are not property tax.
Last reviewed: October 2026.