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An Executor’s Guide to Taxes Administering an estate can be a daunting and tiring task. It’s likely something you’ve not done before and may never be called on to do again. Among the many duties you have is making sure taxes for the deceased and the estate are in good order before closing the estate. This can be overwhelming as thinking about your own taxes can be scary enough! Here we’ll discuss considerations around this aspect of your fiduciary obligation. individual basis as appropriate. Note that you’ll Income Tax Filings of the need proof of your role as executor for a taxing Deceased authority to speak with you, e.g. letters Just as you are accustomed to filing your own testamentary. A financial power of attorney for the income tax return, you’re now responsible for deceased will not be helpful in this situation as making sure the deceased’s last income tax return these are void after death. is filed. This may be a joint return with a surviving spouse or a return for only the deceased if he/she What do you do if you don’t have tax-related records for the deceased? I often find executors was not married at death. The final return could are missing some or even all of a deceased’s tax also be a jointly-filed return for both deceased spouses if they passed away in the same year. If records. This can be because the deceased’s you are the executor for an individual who was estate plan was disorderly or absent, address married at his/her death, you’ll need to coordinate changes, lack of access to electronic accounts, or this final tax filing with the surviving spouse or the volume of documentations may be such that executor of the other spouse’s estate if this isn’t something is invariably misplaced. The first step is you. In addition to a federal income tax return filed to see what income documents can be obtained on Form 1040, a state income tax return may also from employers, financial asset custodians, and be required depending on the deceased’s state of other tax form issuers. If income activity may still residence/domicile and states where the deceased be missing, the next step is to contact the IRS for a wage & income transcript for any years in question. owned income-producing property or had business activity. In addition, some income activity may need to be created, e.g., if the deceased owned a business or rental property. Keep in mind that tax documents Not only must the deceased’s final tax returns be and IRS transcripts typically cover only items of filed, you’ll also want to make sure there aren’t any income. Although an IRS transcript will likely show other years for which the IRS or other taxing mortgage interest as reported on Form 1098, authorities are expecting tax returns or tax information for other itemized deductions such as payments. For example, if the deceased owed the medical expenses, state taxes, and charitable IRS several years of back taxes, these must be contributions will have to be created from the addressed before closing out the estate. If you are deceased’s bank records or other documents. at all unsure about this, a phone call to the IRS is Additionally, IRS transcripts may not show the the best starting point. Request a compliance correct cost basis for the sale of financial assets check to see if any returns or balances due are and will likely show no cost basis for any sales of outstanding and also to see if any overpayments may be on file. States can also be contacted on an real estate, so further work will be required for these types of transactions. Atlanta.Tax • [email protected] 1 An Executor’s Guide to Taxes Individual income tax returns are generally due It’s also possible that both the estate and the April 15th of the year following the deceased’s beneficiaries have taxable activity for the same death. This can sometimes cause the closing of the period. If an estate distributes property to estate to be delayed even if all else is resolved. beneficiaries in the same tax year it generates For example, if the deceased died in February taxable income, it’s possibly the beneficiaries may 2019, the 2019 Form 1040 can’t be filed until be required to include their share of the estate’s nearly a year later. On the other hand, you may income in their own personal tax returns. Included have an estate that will take some time to close. If in Form 1041 is a Schedule K-1 that reflects a you need additional time to gather information for a beneficiary’s share of an estate’s activity to be complete and accurate tax return, an extension of incorporated into the beneficiary’s personal tax time can be requested which gives you until situation. You’ll want to understand as soon as October 15th of the year following the deceased’s possible in the estate administration process what death to file his or her final Form 1040. Keep in tax impact there may be to beneficiaries so that mind extensions do not extend the time to pay any you can communicate this information to them. taxes owed, so late payment penalties and interest Beneficiaries may have no idea that receiving may accrue if balances are owed with the returns money from an estate could have an income tax when filed. consequence to them. As a best practice for properly completing Schedules K-1, obtain beneficiary Social Security numbers in advance of Income Tax Filings of the issuing distributions as these may be difficult to Estate obtain after beneficiaries have received their share The estate is the entity that exists from the of estate assets. deceased’s date of death until the deceased’s property is completely distributed to beneficiaries The deceased’s will may include a provision for and the estate is closed out with the appropriate what’s known as a testamentary trust, i.e., a trust court. While in existence, the estate’s assets may that comes into being upon death. If so, consider generate income, e.g., financial account earnings that this newly-created trust may also contain or sale of real estate. If $600 or more of income is assets that generate income and, as such, may generated by the estate, it will likely have a federal also need a tax return of its own. You as the income tax filing requirement. Just as individuals executor may or may not also be the trustee of a file Form 1040 to report their taxable income, testamentary trust. In a very specific set of estates file Form 1041. As you are working with the circumstances, the estate and such a trust may attorney helping you administer the estate, it’s even file one Form 1041 to report their combined likely he or she will obtain for a federal tax ID (also activity. This may or may not be feasible or called EIN for Employer Identification Number) desirable depending on the trust’s trustee, from the IRS which is the identification number beneficiaries of the trust and estates, etc. under which you will file Form 1041. Note that the estate may choose a fiscal year and that the Other Tax Filings accounting period for an initial filing is allowed to In addition to Form 1040 and 1041 considerations, be less than 12 months. This allows for potential two other federal tax returns should be considered tax planning, as well as a prompt filing for an for the deceased. The first is Form 709 which estate that can quickly be closed. reports taxable gifts made during the year. In general, a gift to an individual of $15,000 or more Who pays taxes on the earnings of an estate? In is reported to the IRS. Such a gift may or may not some situations, it’s the estate itself. In other have an associated tax with it depending on situations, it’s one or more beneficiaries. several factors including the return is Form 706 Atlanta.Tax • [email protected] 2 An Executor’s Guide to Taxes which reports assets of the deceased for, not • If you currently work with a CPA for your own income tax, but estate tax purposes. Only estates tax needs or if the deceased did so, this CPA over a certain threshold are subject to the federal may or may not be the best fit to help you estate tax. At the time of this writing, this amount is manage and close the estate from a tax over $11,000,000 in combined estate assets and perspective. If this person has done good work lifetime gifts. As such, most estates will not require for you or the deceased in the past, I a Form 706 filing to report and pay estate tax. recommend approaching them to see if working However, executors handling estates under this with estates is in their wheelhouse. If so, this is threshold should still give Form 706 consideration one less relationship you’ll need to develop for purposes of what’s known as portability. while administering the estate. If this type of Portability allows a deceased spouse to shift his or work isn’t something they feel comfortable her unused lifetime estate exemption to the handling, they may be able to provide a referral surviving spouse and is accomplished only by filing to a trusted colleague.