My elderly mother is a few years behind on filing taxes and I'm trying to complete tax returns for 2017, 2018 and 2019.
She has numerous investment accounts and I've been able to get copies of tax statements for most of her investment accounts. However, I've given up trying to get the missing statements since a few of the account representatives refuse to work with me since I'm not listed on my mother's account. They said they've mailed the statements to my mother but I'm unable to locate them, either because my mother misplaced them or they were never sent.
I do have her full 2016 tax return that was prepared by a professional accountant, and there were no changes made to any of my mother's investments during 2017-19. I have requested tax transcripts from the IRS, but haven't received anything yet.
Questions:
1. I'm inclined to just 'estimate' the amounts for 2017-19 using numbers a few percentage higher than the previous year (starting with the known numbers from 2016). Is this an acceptable approach? The investments are primarily mutual funds.
2. Is there a higher risk of audit if I use the approach in #1? At this point I would think the IRS would be thrilled to get any return/payment at all.
3. What should I expect from the IRS transcripts? Will they have the information I need to complete the tax returns? Note that they'll be sending these to my mother's address, so there's a chance they will get misplaced (she is older and sometimes just throws things away).
Thanks in advance.
Troy
