If you’re deciding what to do with unused cemetery plots, you have four practical options: sell them on the secondary market, transfer them to a family member, donate them to a qualified charity, or leave them to pass through your estate. Which route makes sense depends on the cemetery’s rules, the paperwork attached to your deed, and how much of a tax or resale angle you want to work.
One thing to keep in mind before you start. A cemetery deed almost never conveys the underlying land. What you hold is a right of interment, sometimes called an easement or license to use the plot for burial. That’s why every option below runs through the cemetery’s administration and its governing documents, not a county recorder.
Selling Plots You No Longer Need
The resale market exists, but it isn’t liquid. Sellers typically price plots below what the cemetery charges for new inventory, because that discount is what motivates buyers to shop the secondary market at all. Plots in high-demand urban cemeteries hold value better; plots in oversupplied areas may sit for a long time.
Before you list, call the cemetery. Confirm your ownership is on file, ask what paperwork a new owner will need, and find out whether the cemetery charges the buyer a transfer fee. That last detail matters because it directly affects what a buyer is willing to pay you.
Check for a Right of First Refusal
Many cemetery deeds require the owner to offer the plot back to the cemetery before selling to a third party. The cemetery may buy it back at the original purchase price or a discounted rate, which is often well below what the open market would pay. If the cemetery declines, you can then sell to an outside buyer, subject to any other resale conditions in the cemetery’s rules. Read your deed for this clause before you spend time listing.
Where to List
Several online platforms connect buyers and sellers. The Cemetery Exchange lists plots nationally. Brokers like PlotBrokers.com and GraveSolutions.com will handle the listing and transaction for a fee or commission; you’ll typically sign paperwork authorizing them to act on your behalf, and listings can run up to three years. You can also list on general marketplaces yourself.
Tax on the Sale
Selling a plot for more than you paid creates a taxable gain, treated like the sale of any other investment asset. You report the sale, subtract your original purchase price as your cost basis, and pay capital gains tax on the difference. Selling at a loss may be deductible, but the rules around losses on personal-use property are restrictive.
Transferring a Plot to a Family Member
Giving a plot to a relative is often the simplest path, especially if someone in the family expects to use it. The transfer runs through the cemetery. You’ll need the original deed or certificate of interment rights, proof of identity, and the cemetery’s transfer form. The cemetery reviews the paperwork to confirm the transfer complies with its rules.
Expect an administrative transfer fee. These vary widely and can range from a couple hundred dollars to considerably more at high-demand locations. Some cemeteries also require any outstanding balances, including unpaid perpetual care assessments, to be cleared before they’ll process the transfer.
Donating a Plot to Charity
A cemetery plot donated to a qualified charitable organization can produce a tax deduction based on the plot’s fair market value at the time of the donation. The IRS defines fair market value as the price the property would sell for between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither under pressure to act.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 561 – Determining the Value of Donated Property
Documentation scales with the value of the gift. For noncash contributions over $500, you file Form 8283 with your tax return. If the deduction you’re claiming exceeds $5,000, you generally need a qualified appraisal from a qualified appraiser and must complete Section B of Form 8283, with the receiving organization signing Part V.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 526 – Charitable Contributions Many plots fall in the range where an appraisal is required, so factor that cost in before assuming the deduction is worth the effort.
A distinction worth understanding: donating a plot itself to a charity is not the same as contributing to a cemetery’s perpetual care fund. Voluntary contributions to a nonprofit cemetery company whose funds are irrevocably dedicated to perpetual care of the cemetery as a whole are deductible as charitable contributions. Payments that are part of the purchase price of a burial lot, even if earmarked for perpetual care, are not deductible. And contributions designated for the care of a specific individual lot do not qualify either.3Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 58-190 – Federal Income Tax Consequences of Cemetery Operations
Leaving Plots in Your Estate
If you do nothing, the plots pass with the rest of your property when you die. Address them explicitly if you want to control the outcome. You can name the plot in your will with a specific bequest, or file a designation of successor rights directly with the cemetery.
Without either of those, unoccupied plots generally pass through your state’s intestate succession laws, just like other property. That sends the plot to your closest heirs in the order the state prescribes, which gets complicated when multiple heirs have equal claims and disagree about what to do. Courts will resolve those disputes, but the cost and time involved are exactly what a single sentence in a will or a cemetery designation form would have prevented. If you have three siblings and two plots, sort it now.
Which Option Fits Your Situation
Sell if you want cash back and your plots are in a market with real demand, and go in expecting a discount to retail. Transfer if a family member actually plans to use the plot, and treat the cemetery’s paperwork and fee as a fixed cost of the handoff. Donate if the plot’s fair market value plus the appraisal cost pencils out against the deduction you’d claim, and if you can find a qualified charity that will accept it. Leave it in your estate only if you’ve written down who gets it; otherwise the plot becomes an intestate asset your heirs will have to sort out.
There’s a timing consideration worth weighing. Cremation now accounts for roughly 63 percent of dispositions nationally, more than double the traditional burial rate, and interest in green burial has grown alongside it, with approximately 470 certified green burial cemeteries in the United States and Canada as of late 2024. If your family’s preferences have shifted away from conventional burial, the plots you’re holding are unlikely to become more valuable or more useful over time. Acting sooner, whether by selling, transferring, or donating, usually beats waiting in a market where demand for traditional plots isn’t trending up.