Final 1041 required?

[taxmandan]

I'm not real familiar with estate returns and unclear if my client (fiduciary) needs to file a final return. We filed for 2015, no tax due, now she wants to file the final return for 2016 and close the estate. There is all of $65 of interest and expenses for her services and tax preparation, that's it. With the $600 exemption there will be no taxable income or tax due. Is a return required to officially close the estate since there was a previous return or can it just close with no further returns after the 2015 initial one?

(Note: the 2015 was required so we could report cost basis on some investments and there was no capital gains on the sale of the investment.)

Thanks,
Daniel

[Burke]

If there was no capital gain, was there a capital loss? If so, that passes out to the bene's on the final return's K-1's. Ditto on sale of real estate. So a return might not be required, but might be beneficial. I like to do a final if one was filed previously just to close it out.

[Kram BergGold]

File It

I too would file it whether required or not just to gain closure.

[taxmandan]

I too would file it whether required or not just to gain closure.

Thanks for the opinions, I will recommend a final return. I'll have to take a look at whether there was a capital loss on the 2015 that could pass through to heirs.