My dad passed away. What kind of estate taxes things do I have to take care of? Whom do I contact?

Question

Do I just file something with irs? Do they come and check the estate?

What are the procedures? Where can I read more about it? I am lost in a moutain of work.

Answer 1

You may or may not have to do much of anything.  If he had a will you need to honor that of course, but it will simplify things.  If he didn't, you will probably have to go through probate, which is a court that determines who gets his assets like a will would have.

Either way, it is probably time to get an attorney to help you exercise the will or navigate through the court system.  If you have brothers and/or sisters, you can all use the same one and share the costs, assuming you won't be fighting each other over who gets what.

If he has a lot of assets and/or it will take a while to distribute them, you and the attorney may have to set up an estate.  That is a special, sort term trust.  The estate becomes the owner of the assets until they are distributed.  If he had investments that made enough dividends, interest, or any other income, it may become taxable and the estate will have to file a tax return.

If he didn't have a lot of assets, it may be real simple.  When my own parents died, they had a buck or two in the bank and their house and that was all.  They had a will, and my sister and I hired an attorney and nobody contested everything so everything was settled in a month.  No estate needed to be formed.

The only other tax matter to worry about other than the possible estate is that somebody has to file his last tax return.  That is supposed to be his will's administrator if he had a will or anybody that all the heirs agree to.

I am sorry for your loss.

Answer 2

this should all be done by probate.

Did he leave a will,if not talk to an Probate attorney before contacting the IRS