Do You Have to File an Income Tax Return After Someone Dies?
Video Transcript Do You Have to File an Income Tax Return After Someone Dies? After somebody dies, one of the obligations of the family–typically the executor, or somebody dies without a will–that person is called the administrator. And if they die with a living trust that has all the assets in the trust, they’re called a trustee. That person is responsible for filing an estate tax return if that’s necessary. They’re certainly responsible for filing an income tax return for the deceased, for the year of death. And then potentially for the estate, for the months following death, before the property is distributed to the heirs. So, the year that the deceased died, typically, I guess, unless you died about midnight or 12:01 on January 1st, you’re going to have income. And the IRS wants to know how much income the deceased made during that year, and they want to be paid the income taxes on that money that year. That’s why the deceased estate has to file the income tax return. After that,
