Death of a spouse

[Warbirdluvr]

My client's wife died in 2023, but the information regarding her death was not received by Soc Sec or IRS until 2024.  Now when I try to file my client's return, the Federal Information Worksheet will not accept that she died in 2023, and subsequently will not e-file the return.  What to do?

[pk]

@Warbirdluvr , if you are really trying to prepare  a "client"'s  return you are using the wrong product.  The EULA  allows use of the product ONLY for personal use.  Perhaps  you should use Lacerte or Pro-series , both from Intuit.    

[VolvoGirl]

Besides the fact you shouldn't be using Turbo Tax for "clients"  he should be filing 2024 as Single unless he has a child and qualifies as a qualifying widower.  So the deceased wife doesn't go on the return at all.  Why are you trying to enter her into 2024?  

You can file a Joint return as normal the year your spouse died. For the next two years following a husband's or wife's death, the surviving spouse can file as a qualifying widow or widower if they have a qualifying child. That basically lets you continue to use the same tax brackets that apply to married-filing-jointly returns. After the year of death if you don't have a child you file as Single.

[Warbirdluvr]

First, I'd like to clarify that I'm not a paid tax return preparer, nor am I doing this for compensation.  My use of the word "client" referred to a relationship I had with this person before I retired.  At age 84 he's using Turbotax, but asked me about his conflicting situation.  I did not do a very good job of explaining this in my prior question.

Simply put, his wife died in 2023, but for unknown reasons, Soc Sec and the IRS either did not receive, or did not acknowledge her death.  They finally did in 2024.  As Volvo girl suggested, he should file as single this year.  But he received partial Soc Sec benefits in 2024 for his wife, and has a 1099-SSN.  If he files as single, Ttax won't let him enter her 1099-SSN info; if he tries to use MFJ status, it creates the problem mentioned in my original question where Ttax won't accept a date of death prior to 2024.

So we were wondering how to treat this situation.

[pk]

@Warbirdluvr  sorry for our confusion.

In such a case , the personal rep.  can file a final return for the deceased covering  monies received  post passing.  See this -->  Topic no. 356, Decedents | Internal Revenue Service

If there was an Estate  of the decedent , then one can also  recognize these incomes at the Estate level.  Think in most cases it is simpler to file a final return.

As far  as I know  ( and based on my own experience ), the city  health dept. updates  the local SSA office ( I just went to the local SSA office with a copy of the death cert)

Hope this helps

[Warbirdluvr]

Many thanks for your quick replies.  Given that this situation is a (to use a polite term), "mess", I'm going to suggest that he and someone from his family go over all his SS payments for the past two years to verify the amounts received and any possible repayments,  and see if it matches the 1099 numbers.  Then they need to take all this info down to the local SSA office and have them figure out how to issue corrected 1099's.  He'll probably need to file an extension.  I'll also have a look at the IRS publication you mentioned and see if it can help.

Again, thanks for your help and guidance.

[pk]

@Warbirdluvr   Great idea.  You are  welcome

pk