lawyer claims missing taxes

[terric0037]

What is the name of your state? MASSACHUSETTS

Mom died in 1999, brother, named adminstrator in 2002., has dragged out my mom's small estate for over 3 years now because he wants to "inherit" the real estate even though there was no will. After my mom passed away I found W2's for 4 of the 5 years my mom didn't file taxes. Thinking I was going to be named administrator I had the taxes prepared, but had no luck getting the missing year's W2. I sent the completed taxes to my lawyer (as well as a copy for his files) after my brother was named adminstrator, and he called me to confirm he had sent them on to my brother's lawyer.

Two years later my brother's lawyer starts hounding me to produce the taxes. I have told them over and over agin that he received them in 2002. We had a pretrial Dec '04 and the judge told this lawyer to look through his files again, and if he didn't find them to contact my ex-attorney to see where they are. I have received numerous phone calls and letters requesting these taxes. I just received a letter from this lawyer stating that my ex-lawyer told him he mailed them to me several weeks ago! I have received nothing! My brother's lawyer said that if he doesn't receive the taxes in 14 days "he will file a motion to compel with the court". What does that mean? I can't give him what I don't have, I've already given it to them. He also said he will "further request an order that I pay his attorney fees associated with the filing and prosecuting the motion".

His lawyer also stated that "my brother explained that you told him it was his obligation to get the returns when he asked you for the copies". I have not spoken to my brother since just after the funeral in 1999. My brother left me phone message about three weeks ago ranting that he deserves the property and that his lawyer has asked me for the taxes for a year now.

I have tried to contact my ex-lawyer, but so far no response back.

Any advice out there for a girl who thought she was doing the right thing and in return is being harrassed and threatened???? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? MASSACHUSETTS

Mom died in 1999, brother, named adminstrator in 2002., has dragged out my mom's small estate for over 3 years now because he wants to "inherit" the real estate even though there was no will. After my mom passed away I found W2's for 4 of the 5 years my mom didn't file taxes. Thinking I was going to be named administrator I had the taxes prepared, but had no luck getting the missing year's W2. I sent the completed taxes to my lawyer (as well as a copy for his files) after my brother was named adminstrator, and he called me to confirm he had sent them on to my brother's lawyer.

Two years later my brother's lawyer starts hounding me to produce the taxes. I have told them over and over agin that he received them in 2002. We had a pretrial Dec '04 and the judge told this lawyer to look through his files again, and if he didn't find them to contact my ex-attorney to see where they are. I have received numerous phone calls and letters requesting these taxes. I just received a letter from this lawyer stating that my ex-lawyer told him he mailed them to me several weeks ago! I have received nothing! My brother's lawyer said that if he doesn't receive the taxes in 14 days "he will file a motion to compel with the court". What does that mean? I can't give him what I don't have, I've already given it to them. He also said he will "further request an order that I pay his attorney fees associated with the filing and prosecuting the motion".

His lawyer also stated that "my brother explained that you told him it was his obligation to get the returns when he asked you for the copies". I have not spoken to my brother since just after the funeral in 1999. My brother left me phone message about three weeks ago ranting that he deserves the property and that his lawyer has asked me for the taxes for a year now.

I have tried to contact my ex-lawyer, but so far no response back.

Any advice out there for a girl who thought she was doing the right thing and in return is being harrassed and threatened???? Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm completely at a loss as to what in the world you are talking about.

By "taxes" do you mean money? Or returns? Or forms?

If you mean money, then there's a paper trail showing who got paid what and when. If you mean forms, those can be replaced easily by the taxing authorities.

In other words, you will have to explain what you mean. Nothing in your post gives any reason for anybody to go to court.

 

[terric0037]

It's my mom's income taxes, she didn't file the last 5 years she was alive... I had 4 years prepared becasue those were the only W2's I found whe i went through her files after she died...

I sent her taxes to my attorney 3 years ago. he said he gave them to my brother's lawyer at that time, but now I have received this letter from this attorney claiming that they were sent to me a few weeks ago ... he said that if he doesn't receive the taxes in 14 days "he will file a motion to compel with the court". What does that mean? I can't give him what I don't have, I've already given it to them. He also said he will "further request an order that I pay his attorney fees associated with the filing and prosecuting the motion".

the last time i saw her income taxes was when i sent them 3 years ago

sorry for the confusion, i'm pretty rattled right now

 

[Dandy Don]

Don't worry about the motion to compel. All you need to do is tell the truth about what happened. But your posting is still missing essential details.

(1) Did you send original tax forms to the attorney or copies of those tax forms? If you sent originals, that was a mistake--you should have sent the originals to the state and/or federal tax agency for processing and sent COPIES to the attorney to prove that the filing had been sent. Were you assuming that the attorney would turn them in to the tax agencies? Even if there was a W2 missing, you should have turned in the forms for whatever years you had to the tax agencies.

(2) Were there any refunds due and payable to your mother or her estate or did it end up being that only taxes were paid?

(3) Do you have copies of the tax forms you sent?

(4) Ask the attorney if the package they sent you was sent by certified mail or do they have any proof of mailing?

(5) Tell the attorney's that if they are concerned about the status of the taxes and whether or not they have been filed, that they can check with the IRS and the state tax agency to verify whether the taxes have been sent or not, and the executor or trustee is the only person who can request copies of previous year's tax filings.

(6) What is the value of the property? You can force the sale of the property by partition--consult with your attorney about how to do that--brother can't delay forever--it will never be completely his and he either has to share ownership of the property with you or sell it.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[terric0037]

Thank you for your response.... I hope I answer your questions completely.

1) I sent the original taxes, as well as a copy of the taxes, to my lawyer at the time per his request. He said he sent the original tax forms to the my brother's lawyer. Since I am not the executor, I could not sign them or file them, my brother has to do that, that's why my lawyer said to send them to him directly instead of my brother's lawyer so that they couldn't say I didn't send them. Ironic huh?

2) There were refunds due. Amounts ranged from $200- $400. She only had 4 years of W2's in her file. I tried to request the missing year, but had no luck getting it.

3) I kept copies of the tax forms only. I did not keep copies of the W2's. I just wanted to be able to compare them with what my brother reported to make sure he wasn't pulling anything funny. We are in the middle of a huge remodel of our house, and my entire 1st floor has been packed up and moved to a storage unit since January. The copies are somewhere in the storage unit. I have no idea where. I never thought I would have to use them for anything but as a check on my brother as I had already sent the originals and the copy to the lawyer.

4) I talked to my ex-lawyer, he said he mailed them out a month ago by 1st class mail, not certified or anything. I have not received them, and he said they weren't returned to him. I don't know what to think, he told me a year ago he gave them to my brother's lawyer, now he said he mailed them to me a month ago!

5) My brother does not want to do any of the work. He became executor to try and get the real estate free and clear, he lost, now he doesn't have a desire to do anything else that requires work. I got the asset appraisals because he was ridiculously inflating the value of everything. He wanted unbelievable amounts of money from the heirs

6) The property is raw (a chunk of wooded area) and has a taxable value of $7400, it has a sale value starting at $28,000+ once a perc test is completed. We came to an agreement at pre-trial that my brother could purchase the property for the taxable value as long as he made no other asset or fee claims of the heirs.

I do have another question. My sister has developed the same cancer our mother passed away from. Her doctors have requested that the hospital release our mother's health records so they can determine what other treatments to try. My brother has refused to sign the release, and he told my sister that she's getting what she deserves. Is there a way to force him to sign the release? He's playing with her life.

Thanks again!