subject: Filing a Federal Estate Tax [print this page] Filing a Federal Estate Tax Filing a Federal Estate Tax
Filing a Federal Estate Tax
The most important document of your existence on earth maywell be one that you will never see, unless you take the timeto investigate it before it must be filed. Since it must be filed within fifteen months after your death, the chances are, unlessyou are a lawyer or an accountant, that you will never see it.When the time comes to file it, you will not be around toanswer the many questions which the government asks. Someof the answers may be available, but finding the information to complete the form and to answer all of its questions after you, as the primary and best source of information have leftthis earth, may be extremely difficult and embarrassing to theloved ones and the business associates whom you leave behind.
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The formmust be filed with the Federal Governmentwithin fifteen months after your death. Think for just a moment of the difficulty you had assembling the information necessary to complete last year's income tax return. That wasfor one year. Possibly you had to go back to look at earlierreturns to double check some items such as cost of acquisitionof securities you sold during the year, or depreciations ofsome items allowed by the government. Do you rememberhow you went through check books, old letters, old brokerage statements, the repair bills after the hurricane where you werenot covered by insurance? Multiply the difficulty of that yearby the sum total of your life, and you will have some idea ofthe difficulties and the questions which will arise for thosewho must administer your estate, pay the taxes and debts, anddistribute what is left to your heirs. Their information must be ferreted out piece by piece, and the government, recognizingthe difficulty, allows fifteen months for the job.
