Joaw,
Your ‘story’ is very hard to understand the way you present it. Can you answer some questions so we can get a clearer picture? No help can be given until we get this straight. The numbers you are giving and some of the things are you are saying do not add up. I’d like to clarify so it can all be more clear.
You say your mother left a little over $20,000. But it sounds like you really do not know how much she left since your brother took off with her papers. Is this right?
My brother took half the money the day of my mother's funeral. While I was at the funeral luncheon paying the bill he left early to go back to her apartment and search for cash without my knowledge. I only have his word that this was the true amount found.
What do you mean he took cash? Did your mother have large sums of money in the house? Or did he take paperwork for all of her accounts and than cash them in later?
If he took cash from the house, how much?
If he took papers and cashed in accounts. What accounts? How much I each of them? Where they only I her name or held jointly by your brother or someone else?
From what you said, after he did this ‘house cleaning’ there was $10,000 left that you were able to see/find. Is this right?
This money left should have been almost enough to cover what was due for taxes BACK IN NOVEMBER OF 2005 when the estate taxes were due but not now.
How much money was left? She had an estate of $20,000. How much tax estate tax could there possibly be on $20,000?
How much in bills did she have that also had to be paid out of the $20,000 she left? From what you wrote her estate was less than $20,000.
Estate taxes only apply for estates over 1 million. Why are you paying estate taxes?
http://www.ohioestateplanninglawyer.com/CustomPage_2.shtml
And you can't imagine the EXPLOSION and delays this caused when I informed my brother that I wanted the accountant to include this cash into the taxes. It is the right thing to do. I am not looking to cheat on taxes - I just want to get them done and done correctly.
Your post is not clear at all. What cash did you want included in the estate tax? Do you mean that you wanted your brother to give money towards taxes out of the money he took? Do you mean you wanted it included in the value of the estate? Or included to pay the taxes? Or both?
was your brother either a co-owner or a beneficiary on the accounts he took the money out of? (I’m assuming that the took money out of accounts and not out of cookie jars in the house)
I am forced to do this tax return with a person who is up on two federal counts of embezzelemnt
Is this embezzlement related to the estate? Or did your brother embezzle at work or somewhere else?
You can not get information on an account if you are not the beneficiary. Their privacy is protected.
Now this statement raises a lot of confusion.
Was your brother the listed beneficiary of the accounts he took money out of? If he was than those monies are NOT part of the estate. They are his free and clear.
An executor has every legal right to get info on the accounts of the deceased person they are representing. For example you can write a letter to each financial institution, ask them to provide information on accounts, the value on the date of death, persons who co-owned the accounts, etc. Did you try this instead of relying on your brother?
Even with this I did 95% of all the estate business myself - without any help or financial assistance from my brother. But now we are almost at
32 months of fines, penalties and interest - none of it my doing. I am not permitted to just pay half of the tax owed and sign the return alone. I am at my brother's mercy of if and when he will agree to sign. Here's a question - when this is finally said and done do I have legal recourse to sue my brother for these fines penalties and interest that he has caused for the past almost 3 years? But here's another question - if his federal indictments come up before we settle this estate and he is found guilty - he has a maximum of a $500,000 fine for each of his offenses (which puts him way over $1,000,000) which is more than the sum of his total assets. How would I even collect any money from him - there would be nothing left. QUOTE]
I don’t even understand why you say there are estate taxes on an estate of under $20,000. Especially since from what you said, your brother might have either been on your mother’s accounts or the beneficiary.
Can we clear that up first?