My question involves real estate located in the State of: California.
My wife and I are joint-owners with her parents on a property. We both invested equal amounts down.
The property deed is written:
"[Name1] and [Name 2], husband and wife, and [Name 3] and [Name 4], husband and wife, all as joint tenants."
Although I've owned a couple homes, I'm not well versed in real estate tax and how it equates to joint ownership. It is my father-in-law's wish to ensure that our family receives the money from sale of the home - and given we'd use it for a new home purchase, to do so avoiding taxes. This was his idea as a means to "gift" money without being subject to taxes.
However, given the deed, is this permissible? It seems to me that we would be entitled to 50% of the sale... and any escrow instruction to disperse the remaining 50% in my name would come at a large tax cost.
Would anyone be able to provide me some advice? Should the deed be changed to a 99%-1% ownership, or something along those lines? Is this even possible?
Although I didn't need "help" with the mortgage, we are both on the loan because of the joint ownership. Really appreciate your guidance on this!

