Filing taxes for deceased parent - can it be payable to multiple children since there was no probate or estate account?

[skydealer]

My girlfriend's mother passed away in 2021.  She was divorced and there are two adult children, one of which handled the estate.  

There was no probate since all assets and property that she had was set up as POD and TOD.  There was not even an estate account set up because the remaining estate only consisted of some old household items in her small condo (the condo was TOD also).

The deceased parent had taxes paid from her pension and  Social Security.  She also had taken out approx. 40k from her 401k which also had state and fed taxes withheld.  The bulk of this was used for hospice care because she was placed in a non-medicare facility.  My question is:  Since there is no estate account and there are two dependents that will split the refund equally, how does this work out for next year's taxes for the daughter who is filing the return?   The son (other dependent) will be paid half of the refund from the deceased parent but will next years taxes show the daughter (who is filing the return) as receiving the full amount, or is it possible for the IRS to issue two refund checks?

[Anonymous_ · Accepted solution]

If your girlfriend is the personal representative, she should file a final return for her mother complete with a Form 1310.

On Form 1310 she will indicate that she agrees to pay the refund out according to state law. She will receive the refund check (in full) and will then pay her brother one-half of the refund.

See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1310.pdf

[skydealer]

The daughter is the personal representative for her mom.  Since this is an IRS refund will it have to be claimed on the daughter's 2022's taxes or does it fall under inheritance?  I'm guessing the amount of the refund will likely be around $5000, depending on if she is able to deduct the non medicare hospice her mom was in for the final few weeks.

[Anonymous_]

No, it is an inheritance. A federal income tax refund is not taxable.