Spouse has died, cannot get AGI

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 22, 2021
2 replies
11 views

My husband and I split up and were fling taxes for the past several years as Married Filing Separately.

He passed away in February 2020, and Turbo Tax has me filing Married Filing Jointly now. I am unable to e-file as I do not have my husband's 2019 Adjusted Gross Income, which I cannot get because he and I were not together for years. Is there any way to get his AGI from somewhere or do I have to file by mail?

Thank you

rjs

Level 15

Do you have the information about your husband's income and deductions prior to his death, which has to be included on your joint tax return? Who is the executor of his estate? You need the executor's permission to file a joint return. If you've been separated for years, he may have appointed someone other than you as his executor.

If you have access to his financial records, and the cooperation of the executor, you should be able to find his copy of his 2019 tax return, and get the AGI from there. If you don't have access to his records, you should probably be filing separately. TurboTax is assuming that you have all the information and authorization to file jointly. If you have all the other information you need to file jointly, but can't find his 2019 AGI, you will have to file by mail.

I'm sure there's a procedure for the executor to get his 2019 tax information from the IRS, but I don't know what the procedure is. A tax professional could probably help.