OK, probably talking to myself, but I'll update this anyhoo. We found a highly rated CPA online with a Masters. 100+ reviews, 4.9 rating. I brought all of my paperwork and we went over everything. BUT, he said he would be way too expensive to fix this ridiculous H&R Block error. He said this was basic accounting 101 and they should get it right. Soooo, we went back to H&R Block.
HRB did find a final 1040 return in their system for my Mom & Dad for 2020 (Year they both died) so they said we are done with that. What is left is to amend 2021 and 2022 tax years for the estate, and include all the expenses for the estate. Then file 2023 with the $2900 DIV and make that the final year estate return.
However, when I asked what all expenses could the estate write off, he could not answer. He said we have to find that out and then bring only legitimate expenses in. They don't want to go through what is and what is not allowed. I don't know really what to say about this. It's become very daunting for us. With no help from the CPA or HRB.
The CPA said minimum $2500 for 2021 and 2022 amendments and then another $1000 for 2023. I guess I'm glad he was honest about charging too much. But HRB is almost no help.
Oh, one last thing. The CPA said for the stocks, we would have to pay taxes on any stock that gained between date of death and day they were sold. But this is an insanely daunting task to figure it out, now that the account has been closed. Will the IRS figure this out on their own? How would they do this? I can't fathom someone at the IRS going stock by stock and checking price at death and when sold. The brokerage account does not keep track of this specific price difference and calculation, so we'd have to do it manually.
Not sure where we go from here.
