Do I need to file jointly? do I use educated guesses for information?

[racjohn]

 Last year my wife and I filed jointly both of us were self employed in separate businesses this past year she passed away I know little about her business and her records are lacking much of the necessary information

[Coleen3 · Accepted solution]

This is very tricky. An educated guess has to have alot of backup behind it. For example, if she put 500 miles on her car for business mileage ever since you can remember, it is a safe bet she did it again. Do some digging. Look at bank statements, try to contact who she dealt with to get receipts. If you do not have proof for an item, income or expense, the IRS can and probably will disallow it. I would be very careful with this. I am stealing this from one of our superusers because it is spot on.

Remember the three golden rules when dealing with the IRS:

1) You are guilty until proven innocent.

2) The burden of proof is on the accused (that's you!) and not the accuser.

3) If it's not in writing, then it did not occur.