Hmmm, the legal bills for the the will contest were all in my personal name, not the estate, while the rest of the bills were in the name of the estate. Loans to the estate were for the property taxes, probate, etc, the normal admin expenses, and the legal was paid with personal checks... We asked the court for legal fees, court costs, and estate admin expenses after it was over, pleading that the will had specific language about contests and that the party losing the fight paid in the end but the court came back with no legal fees and just completely ignored the rest! Given the state laws where this was and that we were already bled white by lawyers, the legal advice was to not begin an appeal process of that battle after winning the war; just incorporate it all into the basis of the property when it was sold or inherited by the next generation one day. Of course, the lead attorney is long deceased now and the entire experience changed the course of my family's life for the worse, to now learn we may not be able to even use the expense spent trying to keep what was left to us is deeply disturbing. I guess it's time to fire up the money machine and pay for some pros to see where this might go beyond the usual tax software that isn't really designed for these kinds of challenges.
