No, a final return is not necessary, but you may wish to send a death certificate. This would notify the IRS of a taxpayers death without having to file a return. Source: at IRS.gov under the title "Deceased taxpayers - protecting the deceased's identity from ID theft" it states :
- Send the IRS a copy of the death certificate, this is used to flag the account to reflect that the person is deceased. The death certificate may be sent to the Campus where the decedent would normally file their tax return. A copy of the death certificate may also be sent with the decedent's final tax return.
