question about taxes for deceased parents

[dianneo]

We live in Georgia and so did my in-laws.

My father-in-law passed away in 1997. After that time my mother-in-law would file taxes for herself and as executor of his trust.

My mother-in-law passed away in 2003. The trust was dissolved, the estate basically settled and all who inherited anything from the estate has filed taxes each year.

However, upon her death we found out she did not file her taxes for 2001 or 2002 for her or the estate (she was very ill). We did not file taxes for her or the estate for 2003.

Since it's been a few years now, do we have to bother filing all these taxes? It is possible that the estate may have owed some taxes on income, however it would not be more than any refund she would have been due. It wouldn't be a large amount either (less than $3000 each year I'm sure).

Frankly, I don't think any of us care about any refund, we just want to ignore all this and hope it'll go away. Will it? The IRS hasn't sent us any notifications.

We were going to try and file the taxes but we don't have all of the information (we don't even have her W-2 from her social security income). Someone advised us to contact an accountant and have the accountant deal with it, but I'm sure that would cost us thousands of dollars. Could we just contact the IRS, tell them the situation, and have them tell us if any tax is due?

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by dianneo

We live in Georgia and so did my in-laws.

My father-in-law passed away in 1997. After that time my mother-in-law would file taxes for herself and as executor of his trust.

My mother-in-law passed away in 2003. The trust was dissolved, the estate basically settled and all who inherited anything from the estate has filed taxes each year.

However, upon her death we found out she did not file her taxes for 2001 or 2002 for her or the estate (she was very ill). We did not file taxes for her or the estate for 2003.

Since it's been a few years now, do we have to bother filing all these taxes? It is possible that the estate may have owed some taxes on income, however it would not be more than any refund she would have been due. It wouldn't be a large amount either (less than $3000 each year I'm sure).

Frankly, I don't think any of us care about any refund, we just want to ignore all this and hope it'll go away. Will it? The IRS hasn't sent us any notifications.

We were going to try and file the taxes but we don't have all of the information (we don't even have her W-2 from her social security income). Someone advised us to contact an accountant and have the accountant deal with it, but I'm sure that would cost us thousands of dollars. Could we just contact the IRS, tell them the situation, and have them tell us if any tax is due?

You can contact the IRS and ask for transcripts for both her and the estate (separately) for the years in question. Once you have the transcripts you can have tax returns prepared to see what the overall situation is. Then you might want to consult an enrolled agent or tax attorney...prior to mailing in the returns.

However, the people who inherited are not liable for her taxes or the estate's taxes. The executor of her estate may be in a world of hurt though, because it was the responsibility
of the executor to make sure that all tax returns were filed and paid, before distributing the assets to the heirs.