I am trying to fill out a 1041 for a friend because her father has died and irs sent her the form to fill out and I am trying to get some assisted to help her?

[mary147914]

are you telling me that you can't help me fill out this form, this is the only form IRS requested?

[VolvoGirl]

If you want to use Turbo Tax they have a special program for 1041 Estate/Trust returns.   You need Turbo Tax Business.

The small business program (TT Business) is for 1120 Corporation, 1120S Corp, 1065 Partnership or 1041 Estate/Trust returns and will not do your personal 1040 return.   It  is a separate program from the Desktop Home & Business program or the Online Self Employed version.

Turbo Tax Business  is not available to do online or on a Mac.  And you can have both TT Business and TT Home & Business (or any personal version) installed on  your computer at the same time.

You can buy the Window's Business Desktop program here…..

https://turbotax.intuit.com/small-business-taxes/cd-download/

[tagteam]

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@mary147914 wrote:
are you telling me that you can't help me fill out this form, this is the only form IRS requested?

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Depending upon the circumstances, the form may not need to be filed. 

Estates are required to file Form 1041 if they have income of $600 or more for the tax year.

See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1041#en_US_2023_publink1000285942

There may be other issues beyond filing Form 1041 (if necessary) so you might want to consult a local tax professional.

See https://taxexperts.naea.org/expertdirectory

[Opus 17]

You don't say why your friend needs this form.  Form 1041 is for an estate tax return.  An estate is a legal entity that exists to receive income and handle the affairs of a deceased person.  Think about a person with a lot of ongoing businesses, or publishing royalties, that go into an estate that manages the deceased person's affairs.   If you are just talking about a person's last pension check received after they died, or other small things, and they don't really have an ongoing business,  the income can usually be reported by the beneficiary as "income in respect of a decedent" instead of needing an estate.

If you do need an estate tax return, you need to buy Turbotax Business for PC.  "Regular" turbotax desktop or online for personal tax returns can't be used for estates. 

[tagteam]

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@Opus 17 wrote:

You don't say why your friend needs this form.

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@mary147914 wrote that the friend received the form from the IRS to prepare and file and that could be the result of the friend (or someone else) having applied for an EIN for the estate. 

Of course, in this instance receiving the form from the IRS does not necessarily mean it is required to be filed.