The short answer
Whoever is your parent's personal representative files the final return. It is due when their return would have been due had they lived.
If no one has been appointed and there is no surviving spouse, the person in charge of your parent's property files it. A child claiming a refund without a court appointment attaches IRS Form 1310. The estate may also need a return of its own.
This chapter explains how things usually work in the United States. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and the rules where you live may differ. Before you act on anything here, check it with one of the people named at the end of the chapter.
What to do
- Find out who is the personal representative.
- Gather your parent's tax forms for the year as they arrive.
- Write "DECEASED", your parent's name and the date of death across the top of the return.
- Attach Form 1310 if you are claiming a refund without a court appointment.
- Ask a tax preparer whether the estate needs a Form 1041.
- Keep watching your parent's mail, and open IRS letters the day they arrive.
What can wait
- The final return itself, until the due date. Nothing needs doing in the first month.
- Deciding what to do about a slow refund, until the rest of the estate is nearly done. A return for the year before the death that was never filed is the exception. It is due on its usual date.
Who can help
A tax preparer, CPA or enrolled agent can prepare the final return and tell you whether the estate needs its own. Ask what they charge before they start. Who to call, at the back of this book, has a line for yours.
The IRS can answer questions about Form 1310 and Form 56. Its Publication 559, Survivors, Executors, and Administrators, sets out the rules for both returns.
The rules, phone numbers and web addresses in this book were checked against the agencies’, courts’ and organizations’ own pages in October 2026. Where a rule differs by state, the book names one state as an example. Check anything you rely on with the office itself.
From Book 3: Their Money
This page has the short answer and the closing lists from chapter 5. The full chapter explains, in plain words, what exists, what to ask, and who can answer. The book covers months 1 to 12 after the death.
Questions near this one
Other questions on related subjects, from this book and the others.
- How do I protect myself personally? Book 2, Being in Charge
- Who is in charge if no one was named? Book 1, The First Month
- Who tells Social Security and the other offices? Book 1, The First Month
- How do I find all of their accounts? Book 2, Being in Charge
Hear when Their Money is out
A short note when each book is out. Five or six emails a year at most. You can unsubscribe whenever you like.