Taxes
When Something Was Missed: Asking for Relief
Deadlines missed during a bereavement are common, and relief from penalties is sometimes available where reasonable cause is shown.
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Taxes
Annuity Payments: Which Part Is Taxable
Payments from an annuity mix a return of what was invested with earnings, and only one part is generally taxable.
Taxes
Are Life Insurance Proceeds Taxable?
Death benefits are usually received free of income tax, but interest, retained accounts, and estate inclusion can each change the picture.
Taxes
Required Distributions in the Year of a Death
A required distribution may still be due for the year in which the account holder died, and missing it carries a penalty.
Taxes
Retirement Withdrawals: The Bracket Effect of a Single Decision
A distribution taken to solve a cash need can push income into a higher band and raise the tax on other income at the same time.
Taxes
The State Answer Is Not the Federal Answer
State rules on estate tax, inheritance tax, and income differ substantially from federal ones, and from each other.
Taxes
Helping Family: When a Gift Has to Be Reported
Substantial gifts can create a reporting obligation even where no tax is payable, and the reporting is what preserves the position for later.
Taxes
Which Tax Records to Keep, and For How Long
A house clearance after a death routinely destroys records that a later tax question would have needed, and they cannot be recreated.
Taxes
A Bill You Cannot Pay: The Options That Exist
Where a tax liability exceeds available cash, arrangements exist. Ignoring the bill is the one approach that reliably makes it worse.
Taxes
Choosing Someone to Prepare a Return That Is Not Straightforward
A final return, an estate return, and a changed filing status in the same period is more than most routine preparers handle regularly.
Taxes
Fraudulent Returns Filed in the Name of Someone Who Has Died
Filing a fraudulent return using the details of a person who has died is an established pattern, and it is usually discovered when a real return is rejected.
Taxes
A Notice Arrives: Reading It Before Reacting To It
Tax notices addressed to someone who has died are common, frequently automated, and almost always have a stated response period.
Taxes
When Social Security Becomes Taxable Income
Benefits can be partly taxable depending on other income, and the interaction catches out widows whose income mix has just changed.
Taxes
Medical Expenses in the Last Year of Life
Final-year medical costs are often substantial and frequently under-claimed, partly because the records are scattered across many providers.
Taxes
The Year the Favourable Filing Status Runs Out
For many widows the tax bill rises noticeably a year or two after the death, when the joint or surviving spouse status no longer applies.
Taxes
Estimated Payments: The Obligation That Appears Without Warning
Where income shifts from a salary to pensions, investments, and benefits, tax may no longer be withheld, and the obligation moves to you.
Taxes
The Income That Was Earned But Never Received
Some income belonged to the person who died but arrived afterwards, and it carries a distinctive tax treatment that catches families out.
Taxes
Selling the Home: Exclusion, Basis, and Timing
Selling a marital home after a death combines a gain exclusion, a possible basis adjustment, and timing rules that interact in ways worth planning.
Taxes
Basis: The Number That Decides the Tax on a Later Sale
Inherited assets may take a different basis from the one the person who died had, and that difference frequently decides whether a sale is taxable at all.
Taxes
The Estate’s Own Return: A Second, Separate Filing
Income earned after the date of death belongs to the estate, which may have to file its own return, entirely separate from the final individual one.
Taxes
Claiming a Refund Owed to Someone Who Has Died
A refund due on a final return is not paid automatically. Who may claim it, and what evidence is required, depends on your position.
Taxes
The Final Return: What It Covers and Who Signs It
A final income tax return is generally required for the year of death, covering income up to that date, and someone has to be responsible for filing it.
Taxes
Filing Status in the Year a Spouse Dies
The year of death is treated differently from the years that follow, and the status available then is usually the most favourable one you will have.
Estate
The Review Schedule That Keeps a Plan From Going Stale
Estate documents decay quietly. They are drafted once and then outlived by moves, deaths, marriages, and changes in the law.