Filing taxes for a deceased person means filing one last regular tax return for the year they died. Whoever is handling their affairs signs it, and it is due by the usual April deadline. It is required only if their income reached the normal filing line or any tax was withheld.

You report the income they received up to the date of death and claim the refund with a one-page form if one is due. Money that arrived afterward belongs to the estate, which files its own return.

Do you have to file taxes for a deceased person?

A return is required when the person’s income for the year met the same filing lines that apply to a living person, because death does not create a filing requirement and does not remove one. Three things decide it: how much gross income the person had, how old they were when they died, and their filing status (IRS Publication 559).

For a 2026 death, the line is $16,100 of gross income for an unmarried person under 65, and $18,150 for someone who was 65 or older at the time of death — the 2026 standard deduction plus the age-65 addition (Rev. Proc. 2025-32; IRC §6012(a)). The other 2026 lines:

2026 gross-income filing lines for a 2026 death (Rev. Proc. 2025-32; IRC §6012(a)).

Age is measured at the date of death, not at year end. A person is considered to reach age 65 on the day before their 65th birthday, and you treat them as 65 only if they had reached it when they died (Publication 501).

Below the line, file anyway when tax was withheld from a pension, wages, or a last paycheck, or when estimated tax was paid. A return must be filed to obtain that refund even if no return is otherwise required.

“Me and my siblings are debating if we need to file a 1040 tax return for our mother who passed in January of this year.”

One poster wrote that on the TurboTax Community forum in April 2023, adding that their mother had no assets, no money in the bank, and no will. The filing lines above answer it. With income under the line and nothing withheld, no return is required; with withholding, file to get the money back.

Who files the final return for a deceased person?

The personal representative files it: the executor named in the will, the administrator appointed by the court, or, when there is neither, whoever is in charge of the person’s property — no court order is needed. The statute says the return of a deceased individual “shall be made by his executor, administrator, or other person charged with the property of such decedent” (IRC §6012(b)(1)).

An executor is named in the will. An administrator is appointed by the court when there is no will or the named executor cannot serve. When no court has appointed anyone and there is no surviving spouse, the person in charge of the property files and signs the return as “personal representative” (IRS Topic no. 356).

The same person also files any returns for earlier years that were never filed. One caution from Publication 559: it is the personal representative’s duty to file when due, and reliance on an agent — an attorney or an accountant — is not reasonable cause for a late return. The job does not transfer because you handed someone the shoebox.

When is a deceased person’s final tax return due?

The final return is due at the same time it would have been due had death not occurred. For a death on any day in 2026, the final 2026 return is due Thursday, April 15, 2027 (IRC §6072(a); Publication 559).

You can e-file it; the software asks for the date of death and walks you through who signs. Form 1310 can also be filed electronically when it is attached to an electronically filed return. The representative can also get a filing extension on the person’s behalf; a request filed by April 15, 2027 moves the filing date to Friday, October 15, 2027. An extension moves the paperwork deadline, not the payment deadline.

A death in 2025 means the final 2025 return was due April 15, 2026, and if it was not filed, the representative should file it now. A death in early 2027 before the 2026 return was filed works differently: the 2026 return is a regular return due April 15, 2027, and the final return is the 2027 return, due in April 2028.

What income and deductions go on the final return?

Everything the person received through the date of death goes on the final return, with the full standard deduction ($16,100 single or $32,200 joint for 2026) and every credit and withholding they had coming. You build it like any other return for that person, stopping at the date of death: every dollar received through that day, every deduction and credit they had coming (IRS, file the final returns of a deceased person). Most people use the cash method — you count income when it is received and expenses when they are paid — so the final return shows only what the person received before death, or had made available to them without restriction, and deductions for expenses paid before death.

The date of death splits the paperwork:

• Forms 1099 for interest and dividends earned before death go on the final return; a separate 1099 should show what was earned after death and paid to the estate or another recipient. You can request corrected 1099s when a payer gets this wrong.
• When one 1099 covers both periods, report the total on Schedule B, then subtract the portion belonging to the estate or another recipient and label it “Nominee Distribution” — a nominee is someone whose name is on the form but who does not own the income.
• The full standard deduction is allowed regardless of the date of death. A January death still gets the whole $16,100 or $32,200 for 2026, because a decedent’s short-year return is filed as though they had lived the entire year (Treas. Reg. §1.443-1(a)(2)).
• Medical expenses paid before death are deductible if you itemize, above 7.5% of adjusted gross income, the income total before the standard or itemized deduction. Bills the estate pays within one year after death can be elected onto the final return with a statement attached in duplicate (IRC §213(c)(1)).
• Funeral expenses are never deductible on the final return.
• Tax withheld from wages, pensions, and annuities, plus estimated payments, are credits that must be claimed on the final return. Credits the person qualified for before death, including the earned income credit, can be claimed even though the return covers less than 12 months.

If you would rather hand me the shoebox and have someone build the final return, split the 1099s at the date of death, and file it with the refund statement, our tax preparation team in Santa Clarita does that by phone or video for families anywhere in the country.

Can a surviving spouse still file a joint return?

Yes, for the year of death, and I would take it almost every time. The final joint return includes the decedent’s income up to the date of death and the surviving spouse’s income for the entire year, at joint rates with the $32,200 joint standard deduction for 2026 (IRC §6013(a)(3)).

If no personal representative has been appointed by the due date, the surviving spouse files the joint return alone. If a court-appointed representative exists, both sign. A representative can later revoke the survivor’s joint election by filing a separate return for the decedent within one year of the due date.

Two limits. Remarriage before the end of the year of death ends the joint return — the decedent then files married filing separately, and the survivor files jointly with the new spouse. And the year of death is the last joint year: the last year you can file jointly with your deceased spouse is the year of death.

After that, a surviving spouse with a dependent son, stepson, daughter, or stepdaughter at home may qualify as a qualifying surviving spouse — a filing status that uses joint-return rates and the joint standard deduction for the two years after the year of death, without filing a joint return (IRC §2(a)). You must not have remarried, the child must be your dependent, and you must provide more than half the cost of the home where the child lives all year. When those two years run out, head of household is the next stop if the tests fit — our head of household walkthrough was written for someone filing on their own who may qualify, and the same tests apply to a widow or widower after the qualifying-surviving-spouse years.

How do you sign the return and claim the refund?

Write the word “DECEASED,” the person’s name, and the date of death across the top of the return, and check the “Deceased” box at the top of page 1 with the date of death entered. Do not attach the death certificate to a federal return; keep it for your records and provide it if requested.

Who signs depends on which of three situations you are in, and the refund paperwork follows the same split. Form 1310 — the one-page statement the IRS uses to release a deceased person’s refund to a living person — is only needed in the third situation (Form 1310). The refund itself goes to the surviving spouse on a joint return, to the court-appointed representative for the estate, or, when nobody was appointed, to the person who files Form 1310 and promises to pay it out under state law.

What happens to a capital loss or other carryover when someone dies?

It is used on the final return or it is gone: a decedent’s capital loss carryover shelters capital gains plus up to $3,000 of other income in that last year, and nothing carries to the estate or the heirs. A carryover — a loss or credit too big to use in one year that rolls forward — can be used only on the person’s final return. A decedent’s net operating loss deduction and capital losses, including capital loss carryovers, are deductible only on the final return, and the estate’s return cannot use them (Publication 559; IRC §1211(b)).

The Tax Court said the same thing about a different carryover in Vichich v. Commissioner. William Vichich had paid $708,181 of alternative minimum tax in 1998, which produced an AMT credit — a credit for alternative minimum tax paid in an earlier year — and the carryforward stood at $304,442 on the 2003 joint return he filed with his wife Nadine. He died on August 21, 2004. Nadine filed the 2004 joint return as surviving spouse without using the credit, and her later returns carried nothing forward. On her 2009 return she claimed $151,928 of it, and the IRS paid her a $149,224 refund, then sent a notice of deficiency — the IRS letter proposing extra tax — taking the $151,928 credit back.

The court agreed with the IRS, in what it called a case of first impression — a question no court had decided before: a joint return does not merge two people into one taxpayer, and a surviving spouse cannot file jointly with the decedent after the year of death. The court’s reasoning ended with the line that matters here: a deceased taxpayer’s unused deductions “must be used on the last tax return of the decedent, or they are forever lost” (Vichich, 146 T.C. No. 12 (2016)).

“I am doing taxes for a deceased family member who has a capital loss of $11k for 2025, but only $3k applies this year. Do I keep filing each year for balance?”

One poster asked that on the TurboTax Community forum in March 2026. The answer is no. The carryover can be used only on the final return, up to $3,000 against other income that year, and nobody files later years for the balance. A return with no income and no withholding also has no refund to claim.

When I prepare a final return, the first thing I pull is the prior-year return, to list every carryover on it — a capital loss carryover on Schedule D, a net operating loss, unused charitable contributions, a prior-year AMT credit. The final return, joint or separate, is the last place the decedent’s share can be used. A surviving spouse’s own carryovers survive; it is the decedent’s share that ends.

What about income that arrives after death?

Money the person had earned but had not received before death is called income in respect of a decedent, and it is taxed to whoever receives it — the estate, or the beneficiary if the right to the income passed straight to them (IRC §691(a)). The date of death splits every account in two: income through that date goes on the final return under the person’s Social Security number, and income after it goes on the estate’s return or the recipient’s own.

The final paycheck works this way. Wages earned but unpaid at death are income in respect of a decedent; the employer reports them in box 3 of Form 1099-MISC if the amount is $600 or more, and they are not included in box 1 of the person’s W-2.

Every domestic estate with gross income of $600 or more during a tax year must file its own return, and the first step is applying for an EIN for the estate. Form 1041 is the estate’s own income tax return, and the EIN — the estate’s tax ID number — is what goes on it instead of the person’s Social Security number (IRC §6012(a)(3); Form 1041 instructions). You can get an EIN online at IRS.gov, generally immediately. Never use the person’s Social Security number for a tax year after the year of death.

The two returns side by side:

• Whose income: everything the person received through the date of death goes on the final Form 1040; income the estate’s assets earn after the date of death goes on the estate’s Form 1041.
• Whose tax ID: the person’s Social Security number on the 1040; the estate’s new EIN on the 1041.
• When required: the 1040 when the 2026 filing lines are met or a refund is due; the 1041 when the estate has $600 or more of gross income in a year.
• Due date for a 2026 death: April 15, 2027 for both — the estate’s only if it keeps a calendar year.
• Who signs: the personal representative or the surviving spouse on the 1040; the fiduciary — someone acting for the estate — on the 1041.

Two things families expect to be taxed are not. A life insurance payout triggered by the death is generally not income to the person who receives it, and neither is an inheritance. What the inherited property earns afterward — interest, dividends, rent — is taxable to whoever received the property. Inherited assets also get a new basis — what the tax law treats as the cost of an asset — generally the fair market value on the date of death (IRC §1014(a)), which is why the date-of-death value of every account and property belongs in your records.

Retirement accounts have their own rules. Our post on inheriting an IRA from a spouse was written for a surviving spouse deciding whether to roll the account into their own, and the 10-year rule walkthrough was written for an adult child who inherited a parent’s traditional IRA; the mechanics carry over to your situation.

One piece of paper ties this together. Form 56 — the notice that tells the IRS you are the one acting for the person — is filed once for the decedent and once for the estate, with the court letters attached if there are any (Form 56 instructions; IRC §6903). It is also the paper that unlocks the person’s transcripts, and a tax transcript, requested with Form 4506-T plus Form 56 or the court letters, can show the W-2 and 1099 information reported under their number — the fastest way to find what a parent earned when the mail is a mess (IRS, request a deceased person’s information). If you are still sorting out which professional handles which piece, who to talk to after inheriting an IRA was written for a newly overwhelmed beneficiary making exactly that call.

What if they owed back taxes or had not filed for years?

The estate pays, not the family: the tax comes out of the estate’s assets before the heirs receive anything. If the estate cannot pay everything, debts due to the United States must be paid first, and a representative who pays others ahead of the IRS while knowing — or who should have known — that tax was owed is personally responsible up to the amount paid out (Publication 559). Pay the tax before distributing, and the exposure stays with the estate.

Two forms shrink the open window once the returns are filed. Form 4810 requests a prompt assessment — the IRS recording the tax as owed — and cuts the time the IRS has to charge more tax from three years to 18 months from the request (Publication 559). Form 5495 asks for a discharge from the executor’s personal liability; if the IRS does not respond within nine months, the discharge is automatic (IRC §6905(a)).

If the person had an offer in compromise pending with the IRS, it died with them. In Estate of Farwell, decided in 2026, a woman’s brother had held her durable power of attorney and signed an offer in compromise — $100 to settle $119,386 of unpaid tax — while she was alive. She died in March 2020, and the IRS mailed its acceptance six months later. The Tax Court agreed with the IRS that no deal was ever formed, because her death had ended her brother’s power of attorney and her lawyer’s authority alike, leaving no living taxpayer or authorized representative to accept for (Estate of Farwell, T.C. Memo. 2026-95). The estate could submit a new offer in its own name. A power of attorney a parent signed while alive ends at death; afterward you start over as the estate’s representative, with Form 56.

If the person had simply not filed for several years, the representative files those years too. Our post on catching up after 3 to 5 unfiled years was written for people who have not filed for several years, and the catch-up mechanics are the same when the unfiled returns belong to a parent. One more point in the family’s favor: if the person qualified as your dependent for part of the year before death, you can still claim them on your own return for that year.

What changes on a California return?

California copies the federal shape with one reversal. The final return is due by the date it would have been due had the person not passed away, you print “Deceased” and the date of death next to the taxpayer’s name at the top, and a surviving spouse signs with “Surviving spouse/RDP” next to the signature (FTB, deceased person).

The reversal is the refund claim. Where the IRS wants nothing attached, California requires both a copy of the death certificate and a copy of federal Form 1310 with a return that claims a refund for a deceased taxpayer. If there is a probate case, the Franchise Tax Board wants the Letters of Administration no later than 90 days after the court issues them, and the estate’s income goes on California Form 541. FTB prints the probate threshold itself: probate is required when total estate assets exceed $166,250, and for the period starting April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028 the adjusted amount is $750,000 — whether probate applies to your family is a question for a California attorney, not this post.

What do people ask most about a final return?

Handling a parent’s or spouse’s final return and want a second set of eyes before you file? N&T Tax & Advisory Group prepares final returns for families — splitting the 1099s at the date of death, catching the carryovers before they lapse, and filing the refund statement with the return — by phone or video, nationwide. Book a meeting with our team here.