Last week, I completed filling out my taxes for my deceased mother who passed last March (2025). She had made her first advanced payment of her 2025 taxes in February, rightly assuming she would be owing taxes for the 2025 year based on the interest she was receiving from her bank accounts and lack of withholdings from her pension. After completing her taxes as her executor/representative (as specified in her will) and filling out Form 1310, I submitted her return to the IRS which included a refund based on her advanced payment to the IRS in February. On Friday after checking "Where's my Refund", I noticed the following message
! Action Required
Please read the following information related to your tax situation. You may need to provide additional information to receive your full refund.
We received your tax return and are reviewing it. If we need additional information, we'll mail a notice with further instructions.
If you've already received a notice, please follow the instructions.
If we determine no additional information is needed, we'll continue to process your refund.
I have never received such a notice when filing my own taxes and I can only assume they want additional information (death certificate? Proof of representative to receive a refund?). I'm just guessing here but I want to be proactive with this. I don't think I missed anything since it was only 3 months of tax information and I received all of the tax statements from her employer and financial institutions, but still I was a bit surprised to see the correspondence. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!
This message usually means the IRS is conducting a routine manual review, which is common on final returns for deceased taxpayers, especially when a refund is claimed.
You don't need to send any documentation unless the IRS specifically requests it. Processing may take additional time while the review is being completed.