TAX RETURNS TO FILE FOR RECENTLY DECEASED PERSON FOR 2024 TAX YEAR

[trust812]

As I mentioned in previous posts my father died in September of 2024 and has a Trust. In the future I will meet with a CPA but to my knowledge in 2025 for Tax Year 2024 as far as Federal tax a final 1040 needs to be filed for my father and a 1041 for his Trust. Am I correct? Is there any other type of tax return or form that needs to be filed? I live in Florida and so did my father so we have no state income tax. Hallelujah! 😀

[Bsch4477]

You are correct. 

[Opus 17]

The final 1040 reports income up until the date he died.  The trust will file a return for after, however:

If the trust has already been in existence and files with a calendar year = a tax year, then yes, the trust needs to file a 2024 return by April 15, 2025.   However, if the trust came into existence with your father's death, and does not have an established tax year, you may be able to choose a different tax year, which would change the deadlines.  I can't tell you the advantages or disadvantages of doing that, you would need to ask your CPA.

To file his personal 1040, you need to be appointed the executor or representative of his estate, this may require a trip to the probate court in your county.  To get any refund deposited in your name (rather than the estate), you file an extra form with his 1040 (form 1310).

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/filing-a-final-federal-tax-return-for-someone-who-has-died

To file the trust return you need to be authorized (hopefully you are the trustee already).  If not, you may need to see an attorney or the probate court again. 

[trust812]

@Opus 17 The Trust was established 2010 by my father’s Trust lawyer. Upon his death this year it became Irrevocable. Although I have been the Successor Trustee since 2010 my father made me a Co-Trustee in 2021 while he was still alive. Being this is the case I think what @tagteam is saying that I don’t have to get permission from the Probate Court.

[Opus 17]

@trust812 

As for the trust, it has obviously been in existence a long time and there is nothing you need to do to get permission to handle its affairs.  As for the personal estate, I will defer to @Anonymous_ , except to add that #1) you may want to double check with state law (for example, if the personal estate is over a certain dollar amount, you may still need the court's approval for other reasons even if the IRS doesn't require it) and #2) if there is a dispute in the family about who should handle your father's personal affairs, you may still need to go to court.  I would guess, based on the long term existence of the trust, that this has already been worked out, and the personal estate may be very small if most of your father's assets are in the trust. But I mention it just in case, and for anyone else who may be reading this.  

[trust812]

The estate is approximately $1.4 Million including a home and an Inherited IRA.

[Opus 17]

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@trust812 wrote:

The estate is approximately $1.4 Million including a home and an Inherited IRA.

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If an IRA or stock market account has a beneficiary, that passes directly to the beneficiary and is not part of the estate.  Anything in the trust is not part of the estate.

An estate is a specific legal entity, not a generic term for "stuff left behind when a person dies."  For example, my father's house was placed in a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust.  He has an IRA and a stock market account, both with designated beneficiaries, and a checking account on which I am co-owner.  To the best of my knowledge, none of these things will be part of his "estate" when he passes.  His estate would be the cash in his other checking account, the furniture in the house, his collectibles, books, and his car, and probably his last pension check (which is paid in arrears at the end of the month).  But not the house or investments I mentioned.

What assets or money is actually part of the estate?

[Opus 17]

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@Anonymous_ wrote:

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@Opus 17 wrote:
If an IRA or stock market account has a beneficiary, that passes directly to the beneficiary and is not part of the estate.  Anything in the trust is not part of the estate.

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The terms are, unfortunately, used interchangeably, but assets subject to probate (the probate estate) need to be distinguished from assets considered to be part of the gross estate for federal tax purposes per Section 2031.

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Thanks.  So @trust812 needs to identify assets subject to probate, versus assets that pass to the heirs by other means. (?)

[trust812]

A few weeks I asked this question and @Anonymous_  answered my question and listed the various forms required but it looks like his answer to my question have been deleted. Is he or she no longer a member of this forum?  If that is the case do any of you know the answer to my question? Thanks!

[fanfare]

Often posters will subsequently remove their response because they find it was erroneous, or based on wrong assumptions or irrelevant.

@trust812