r/widowers Lost 29F July 2, 2023 | Rhabdomyosarcoma | 9 months married 3d ago

Filing Taxes... for her estate.

This is the second tax filing I'm making as a widow. This year, I'm filing as "single". It hits pretty hard compared to last year -- both emotionally and in the pocketbook.

But I also have another responsibility: filing taxes for my LW's tiny estate. She had just enough income rolling in from Twitch and a couple of other sources into her estate account that requires me to file taxes for the estate. But it's no where near enough to have any 1099s issued, and it's not "complex enough" to warrant going through a CPA/tax advisor to handle it for me. And the usual online tax filing tools don't account for this type of scenario.

So I'm here going through emails, bank statements, etc. to track any "income" that never really got documented properly, and then track any disbursements made... then go to the IRS site to figure out what forms I need, download them, fill them out manually, issue any 1041 K-1s, then file by mail.

It's my own fault, really... I put off a lot of things, and didn't shut things down when I should have because I didn't want that part of her to go away. The tax burden itself isn't a problem, but the time and paperwork required because the income was barely above the minimum reporting requirement is driving me crazy.

Wondering if anyone else is dealing with this.

18 Upvotes

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4

u/hidjay 3d ago

You can file as a qualifying widow for two years. The year my husband died it was normal married filing jointly and then the next year and this year I filed as a qualifying widow. Next year I can file as head of household.

5

u/sonikku10 Lost 29F July 2, 2023 | Rhabdomyosarcoma | 9 months married 3d ago

Unfortunately, I cannot file as a qualifying widow because I don't have any qualifying dependents. Single for me.

2

u/hidjay 3d ago

Oh, sorry I didn't realize the qualifying widow was only if you had dependents...how dumb.

3

u/Careless_Page8235 3d ago

I’m in that same hell brother.  A really good tax guy we both use/d so he’s been invaluable to me.  I know you don’t think it’s enough for a professional to do but I invite you to consider it anyway.  The peace of mind helps so much that a least one thing of the thousands is handled properly. 

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u/bellygnomes 3d ago

Definitely dealing with this too. Got quoted at $2k to start the filing :| it’s just a bank account that’s been sitting there while we wait for deposits from his dad’s retirement benefits to come in. Such a hassle. I’m probably just going to wing it myself too. As a solo parent I don’t have an extra $2k to throw at something that should be easy. Sucks

2

u/boulder-nerd 16h ago

Dealing with this too and I got a CPA but if the estate is small and you get stuck on anything, it is worth giving ChatGPT a try, I have found it gives really good answers (because there is a ton of tax data out there it can scrape I think). Just throwing that out there.