A person deceased in 2009 without a will. Who would be the personal representative to file the last tax return for him and file the Form 1310 for the refund? He did not have a will and there is no personal representative appointed by court either. Does either his father or his mother automatically become the personal representative?
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Depends on state law. Most states are required to appoint a rep. I'm surprised the court didn't. You may want to contact lawyer that's handling the estate. I would bet the court appointed the lawyer personal rep. -
It's in California. By the way, when would the court be involved in someone's death? They have a death certificate. Did the court appoint a personal representative when they issued the death certificate?
And I don't think they hired a lawyer for the estate either. The estate was only composed of a small amount of pension in a bank. And the fund had been distributed to his mother because she was named the beneficiary when the deceased person set up the pension account.Last edited by AccTaxMan; 02-15-2010, 12:59 PM.Comment
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If you loan someone $20 and never see them again, it was probably worth it.Comment
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Personal rep in many cases where there is no property involved, and no spouse,
is next of kin, court appointed or not.ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LAComment
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Deceased
Non - Probate for State Issues
I have filed many "final" returns on deceased taxpayer, usually a son/daughter (sometimes parent) will take care of, and no court authority
Just had two of them received this week
In these cases, there were living trusts in place, and/or little to no value to the estate of the deceased.
for Calif probate it is a legal proceeding to wind up a person's legal and financial affairs, and if there is no real estate or sizeable financial account, usually no probate is involved. If there was a sizeable amount or transferable accounts, someone would have to file in Probate Court and Petition. You would have to research under $ 100,000 or over $ 100,000 value and whether there were family relations, creditors, etc. to see if probate was required.
In your scenario that you posted, a named beneficiary on a pension would not be a probate issue. Accounts that name a beneficiary usually are not a probate issue, i.e., pensions, IRA accounts, Life Insurance, POD accounts at Financial Institutions, etc. Other accounts might be.
SandyComment
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that is not an issue for you. that should be decided by the family. It could depend on the amount of the estate but it is still an issue for the family to agree on.
I certainly would not want to be filling out and submitting a 1310 to give his money to someone the family didnt designate.Believe nothing you have not personally researched and verified.Comment
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Thank you for all your reply.
I will process the Form 1310 under his mom's name.
Last question, what about the signatures?
Obviously his mom should sign the Form 1310. But what about the Form 8879? My program generates the Form 8879 without any special notes that it is signed by the beneficiary. Does his mom sign the Form 8879 too and write 'signed by beneficiary' besides it?Last edited by AccTaxMan; 02-18-2010, 07:38 PM.Comment
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If she signs the 1310 then she should sign all forms that require a signature.Believe nothing you have not personally researched and verified.Comment
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