Fiscal Year for an Estate 1041

[Bmck345]

I need to file a 1041 for the estate of a relative that died on 3/31/2024. I want to elect a Fiscal year and believe that the correct fiscal year would start at the date of death, 3/31/2024 and end 12 months later on 2/28/2025, with the return due by 6/15/2025.

When the attorney's office handling the estate filed the SS-4 they mistakenly set the fiscal year as May 2024 to April 2025, with the return due by 8/15/2025. I've spoken with two tax accountants and received two different responses. One said to ignore what was submitted on the SS-4 and file the return with the correct fiscal year end (Feb), the other said to just use what the IRS has on file (April), despite it being a period longer than 12 months.

I called the IRS, and the rep I spoke with said to Write a letter to the IRS explaining what happened and requesting it be changed to a February Fiscal year end.

Can anyone provide some guidance on this issue?

[Hi Palms]

You can go ahead and write the letter but odds are no one at the IRS will read it, much less be bothered to act on it.

Simply use the correct fiscal year as your outlined in your post and you should be fine. Also note that you can select any tax year you want on your initial 1041 so you could use May-April if there was no activity in the estate for April of 2024. 

[Bmck345]

Ther was interest and dividend income in April to be attributed to the estate, but reported under the deceased's SSN. I'm waiting to hear from the bank to see if they will issue a corrected 1099 under the Estate EIN or if I will need to file a 1099 for a Nominee distribution to the Estate. Using the correct fiscal year, the return due date is 6/15/2025. I may have to file for an extension. The 7004 requires an entry on line 5a showing what tax year the application is for. Should i enter the correct year end there?

[Hi Palms]

Yes, you can enter your tax year (beg/end) on Line 5a on Form 7004.

Frankly, it's kind of unlikely that you'll get a corrected 1099 so you might want to go ahead and do the nominee procedure and dispense with the 7004.