@MaxEagle wrote:
Thanks for your response.
The girlfriend has nothing, no POA. The funeral home notified SS, and we verified that. We closed his bank personal account as well as notified his company's pension dept he retired from to halt those payments. I'm sure she would've kept on receiving payments if she could have.. We are at the point of searching for a lawyer. I think the tax thing will put us there, and to be be declared as executor of the estate.
First of all, even if a power of attorney existed, it dissolves upon death. You can't use a POA to act for a deceased person, so that's irrelevant.
It sounds like you want to file a return just to block the other person from also e-filing a tax return. I think this is probably a bad idea, because it will almost certainly be wrong or incomplete, and amended returns are taking up to a full year to process. You want to get this right, not rushed.
No one can legally file for a deceased person without a declaration that they are the person's executor or personal representative. Typically this is done by signing your name to the tax return on paper with "personal representative" next to it. To get a deceased person's tax refund sent to you, you must file a form 1310 with your tax return, and that also requires a declaration that you are appointed their personal representative, and you can't e-file this form. You must mail it (with a full return or separately after e-filing the main return) and attach a copy of the court order designating you as the personal representative.
So there is not too much worry that someone else could claim your father's tax refund, and lots of ways to prove the person was wrong if they tried to do so.
