Bravo Muskrat, your cuts to the IRS has made it impossible

Must have been My Dad that answered the phone at the IRS.  10 years today he passed away

@cd329

 There are a ton of assumptions in filling out paperwork for a deceased family member and most people are not lawyers who do this for a living so the nuances about this form that form in addition to what the bank/broker/IRS/government agency requires is foreign to most people. Sometimes even if you are designated as trustee or are a beneficiary you STILL have to fill out forms as if you are not to get that designation and as you mentioned there were a few of these situations where the time I spent was almost not worth the benefit and maybe that is part of the plan to confuse the person and they give up trying.

You are 100 percent correct, lots of this stuff can get so confusing.  I still dont know why they didnt write down what was needed in the letter, instead of making you call to find out what was needed.  The old wear you down strategy until you wave the white flag

you would think the tax accountant (not a tax person that just does taxes once a year in the mall) would have known  what was  needed with the filing of the taxes.  Also the estate lawyer who gets a pretty nice chunk for her job, probably should have told her, send this in with the taxes.  But hey things happen and am a really patient person with stuff like this, I just wish musk wasnt fooling around in govt and making it harder for us regular joes then it already is.  Whats funny is her brothers and sisters dont see how the sausage is made, they just get the final product. No clue how much time was spent on it lolllllllllllllllllllllllll

Yep same with my situation, the inlaws picked me to be the survivor trustee and set up a stupid trust, didnt maintain it and had no idea what was going on so I had to step in and try and figure out their mess after the fact.

The taxes are a pain because you have to file a final deceased tax form and if you cross over into a different tax year say like the person passed in Jan, well taxes were due for the previous year and the person was alive...so you have to file taxes for that and then the following year as a deceased person as a final tax filing. My inlaw passed in Jan so it strung around for a full year until completion and undoing the trust getting the assets in the trustee account and all that nonsense took a year too. And we are lucky that probate was not required which would have added another six months. Most people do not know that probate is only for certain conditions and most are not needing to go to probate, that if your estate falls under the threshold you do not need to wade through that probate mess.

Wow Wall that seems like a total nightmare. Her Mom died in july, so didnt have to go that crazy stuff your going thru.  In new york real estate over 50k has to go to probate. Her house is 250k and probate lawyer is getting 6 percent.

Thank God you dont have anybody contesting, or your stress would go thru the roof. Do you get paid for being survivor trustee like a executor gets? Think my wife gets an extra 5 percent for being the executor.

Omg  that system sounds like a nightmare - over here those that want your money (rather it be lawyers or the IRS or whatever) fills everything out for you and you basically just have to login and approve or declined what they have figured out - and if you decline it is dealt with almost instantly (I think I have experienced a mistake 1 time in my entire life - since well it is their job to be good at stuff like that) - wtf I had no idea it worked liked that anywhere in the world - sounds like you live in the 80’s

Yup our ways of doing things are so messed up its quite comical. Are you sure you can sponsor me to come live in your country?  lollll

Yup lawyers get 5 or more percent of peoples estates for filing the paperwork that is designed so the average person just cant do it and have to hire the lawyer.

Yup our ways of doing things are so messed up its quite comical. Are you sure you can sponsor me to come live in your country?  lollll

Yup lawyers get 5 or more percent of peoples estates for filing the paperwork that is designed so the average person just cant do it and have to hire the lawyer.

Well it is almost charity at this point - so might be able to get it through :) - I am literally mind blown over this - this sounds like the most stupid, slow and inefficient system I could have come up with even if I tried (and the procentage of people that end making mistakes either deliberately or not must be through the roof - hehe wtf) - before today I might have thought something like that existed some places in Africa maybe - that it still works like that in a “developed” country is insane

Now I am just curious how it works over there and what the reason behind it is :) - if you did make a mistake and they found out about it - would they give you a fine ? 

Because it sounds to me like they almost want you to make errors

I "could" have under the law but I did not pay myself for anything, we divided things up equally between the siblings and all parties knew that there would not be any nonsense or unfair division. The others appreciated that we did all the hard work that they did not want to do.

am sure they will give fines, if the errors result in govt not getting their proper amount of cash

A person has a will, the will states what they want done.  It should be pretty simple thing and shouldnt need to jump thru hoops and shouldnt take 3-8 months in probate, especially for simple wills and nobody contesting anything.

@cd329

 Sorry to hear about your mother in law, brother. 

Ohh I didn’t catch it was about someone dying - that also take pretty long here - and I am also sorry for you of course

Thanks You

@cd329

 Offering the following:

My father passed early in the year and his "income" did not meet requirements for filing or final filing. 

However there was tax paid on investments and thus, I figured the estate would be owed a refund.  So I filed the final tax return and learned if anyone other than the deceased is getting the refund there is a separate form that must be printed and mailed.  Additionally, in my case the return also needed to be printed and mailed.

Less than a month we got the check.  Not sure how this stacks up with your challenges but I was unaware of the additional form respective to refunds.

As to hold times and ability to reach, that's most government all the time and not exclusive to Musk-Rat.  Unless of course you owe, then you get right though.

Condolences and BOL sorting it Additionally estate management is not fun.

The stench in the House chamber tonight would make most Americans puke!

Thank You StumpTownStu, really appreciate that. Means alot