Waiting for tax clearance is often the biggest delay in closing an estate. We’ll explain why tax clearance is so important and why it takes so long.

Why tax clearance is so important

No one wants IRS problems under any circumstances. In estates, the IRS is a top priority creditor. They need to get paid before anyone else gets paid. It’s important to know the final figures for the IRS before distributing to the other creditors and heirs.

If the IRS is not paid properly, the IRS will come after the executor and heirs later. In order to be paid, they will come after whoever has the money, which can include the heirs who received an incorrect distribution. The executor can also be held personally liable.

Let’s say you are the executor, and you neglect to pay the taxes properly. You cut the checks to the heirs and six months later the IRS says you owe another $50,000. Imagine asking heirs to give back some money to pay taxes. Those heirs are not going to return your phone calls no matter the amount of money owed.

Must file final returns to get started

Sometimes it is hard to get the decedent’s final paperwork in order to make that final filing. It’s happened to us many times. We know there’s another W-2 or 1099 out there to finalize the return, but we don’t have them. If we’re missing documents, we have to request them from banks and other financial institutions. This process can take weeks, or even months, because these bureaucracies are not used to dealing with non-everyday situations like death. We often get shuffled around among different departments to get what we need.

Even worse, sometimes we have to request missing information from the IRS. This process can be brutally long. It takes a whole year just to get the tax clearance from the IRS. Imagine trying to request just one piece of paper. The IRS is overworked, and they don’t answer the phone. You end up filling out and submitting forms, then play the waiting game.

Sometimes filing the final tax return isn’t final. Even after filing the decedent’s 1040, from time to time you need ANOTHER filing (1041) to confirm that there are no capital gains on the sale of the decedent’s home.

Last bite at the apple

This is the IRS’s last chance to get money out of the decedent. Once the tax return is filed, the IRS takes a LONG time to review it and give a final answer. They know that this is their last opportunity to collect from this taxpayer. They examine a decedent’s return way more thoroughly than a living person’s return.

The IRS reviews more than a W-2, a 1099, and a bank interest statement. Within the Statute of Limitations, the IRS looks at social security withholding, payroll tax, income tax, capital gains, and everything in between. This just adds to the already existing delay in processing.

It is frustrating for the heirs to wait so long for a distribution; however, they seem to prefer to wait rather than to sign a statement saying that they will bear the responsibility if the IRS comes after them. When dealing with the IRS, you rush to wait. There’s not much of a choice.

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Clients often call asking us why their probate case is taking so long. Probate usually takes a while, but lately, it has become an even longer process. We will discuss three current, real-world situations to help you understand what your case might be taking longer than you thought.

Is there a backlog for probate?

As is the case for any bureaucracy (especially government), due to COVID/lockdowns, the courts have had limited staff and operations for over a year. This means the courts (which are generally not lightning fast anyway) are now playing one year’s worth of catch up. Probate court piles have been stacking up; it’s not as if people stopped dying.

On top of the daunting backlog, the courts are understaffed. Additionally, new clerks are hired who are not very experienced. Also keep in mind that many offices are working on a staggered in-person schedule. This leads to more delays and mistakes because there may not be enough experienced workers to provide solid training. The new clerks may have to wait much longer to get a simple answer from a supervisor who is working remotely. Meanwhile, the piles of files are stacking higher.

Can probate court change its mind?

Imagine the court (clerk, staff member, etc.) reviews your file, and requires a laundry list of changes from you. This is normal and happens often. But many changes are very time consuming, such as getting papers signed, translated, ordered from other courts, etc.

Even if we think the changes are unnecessary, usually it’s just better to grin and bear and do as court instructs. Arguing about the changes won’t make it go faster, so you comply. Now imagine by the time we file the requested changes the court clerks have cycled out or changed. Now we have a new clerk who says, “who told you to do it that way? I need you to do these other five things.” This often happens with bigger corporations where you usually do not deal with the same person twice. Typically, you get to know the court clerks over the years. But lately, the turnover has been unusually high for whatever reason.

Do courts make mistakes?

Yes, the court personnel are human and make mistakes, too. For example, probate court have SLOWLY adopted e-file system. Does e-file work smoothly? Not yet. We can file some things, but not everything.

We had a client who called us for a case status. He got really frustrated and called the court directly after we told him we are waiting on the court.  He called to ask court status of case; court replied that nothing had ever filed. However, we were literally looking at the computer screen showing the date that the case was e-filed and accepted. The poor client didn’t know what was going on: was his lawyer or the court lying to him? Thankfully, we put out the fire since we had receipts to prove the e-file.

These are some reasons we’re seeing as to why probate is taking much longer than usual. Hang in there; it’s a waiting game. And we’re waiting along with you

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Sometimes the biggest problem in probate is the people, specifically when there are too many people involved.

When there are too many lawyers

You may be wondering: “Why would anyone want too many lawyers involved?” Sometimes there are situations where everyone lawyers-up: the executor has his, the heirs each have their own, and so on.

We recently had a situation where two of the heirs had multiple lawyers. There was a language barrier because the heirs were not English speakers. They had lawyers from their own country and those lawyers had translators in the United States. That translator didn’t have any probate experience, so the family friend contacted us to explain what the probate lawyer is saying. Now, there are three layers of lawyers between the heirs and the actual work that is being done.

Sometimes heirs have multiple lawyers for other reasons. Sometimes a relative or family friend is a lawyer, but do not specialize in probate. They may act as a back-seat driver to the hired probate attorney.

None of these situations are great, because in most cases, everyone is billing. Just imagine: three lawyers multiplied by one email is now 3 billable increments. Or if you have four lawyers and the average billing is $400 an hour, that is now $1,600 an hour. Not to mention paralegals and legal assistant who are billing in addition to the attorneys. It adds up fast!

When there’s too many layers

As mentioned above, there was an issue with three layers of lawyers between the heirs and the actual work that is being done. Why is that a problem? Remember the game “telephone” where you whisper something to the person next to you, and they whisper it to the person next to them and so on? By the end of the line, the final recipient has nothing close to the original message! It’s no different with professional lawyers in between.

It’s not just garbled messages or lack of communication skills, but their biases get inserted along the way. There are also delays while passing information along. If the message from the executor needs to pass through three lawyers before reaching the heir, it will take a while. What if each step takes up to twelve hours to review the information? It could be days before the message gets to the recipient, when it was a simple question that could have taken just a few minutes and one quick email.

When there’s to many emails

Whether it’s because everyone has their own lawyer or there are multiple layers, important information gets lost in the barrage of emails.

If there are ten people included in an email chain, there may be times where everyone wants to chime in and respond to something that isn’t necessary. It’s not easy to scroll through ten emails and immediately pull out the important information. It takes time to go back and look through the previous emails.

Another issue with a large email chain is that no one knows who is doing what. It’s like taking your kids out with other families who have kids. Who’s watching the kids? It’s one of those situations where people might assume that everyone else is handling the situation.

Having “too many cooks in the kitchen” can lead to problems based on just communication issues alone. If you want to be armed with knowledge before tackling probate, check out my book, “How Probate Works,” available on Amazon.

Sometimes the estate doesn’t have cash on hand and only has illiquid assets like the home, a business, or artwork. But settling the estate has many ongoing bills and expenses, from court fees to movers to accountants. We’ll discuss 3 ways to deal with cash-poor, illiquid estates.

Can the heirs pay?

Sure – If the heirs have the funds, they can “lend” money to the estate to keep things moving. For example, the estate will be worth $200,000 once we liquidate everything, but we have no cash until we sell everything, such as a house. We usually need a couple thousand dollars to hire an appraiser and clean it out prior to the sale. It’s not a good situation.

First of all, not all heirs have the funds or ability to pay. Oftentimes, we’re not looking at hundreds of dollars, but thousands. Even if there is an heir who is well-off, it may create an imbalance. The heir who loaned to the estate feels entitled to run the show and receive information before the other heirs. When the family is upset and grieving, having a wealthy heir loan money to the estate could cause more family problems.

Especially in this situation, the executor must keep excellent records to make sure the repayment in terms of final inheritance adds up properly.

Can you get a loan against your inheritance?

This means borrowing from an “inheritance funding” company. These are basically like payday loans for heirs, but for estates. This is VERY expensive.

 

 

How does it work? I’m not endorsing this, but I want you to understand it. Here is the example: 

You have an inheritance of $10,000 that you should be receiving, but you don’t want to wait. You then pledge up to $10,000 of your inheritance to the lender. In exchange for signing loan documents, the lender gives you $5,000 cash now (half). Depending on how long it takes for the estate to close and repay, the lender will keep up to $10,000 of your inheritance. If the estate takes too long to settle, the lender may keep all $10,000. Or maybe the estate settles quickly, and the lender gives you $2,000. So, essentially you paid $3,000 to borrow $7,000. Estates can take a long time, so most likely you’d walk away with just your 50%. It might be better just to wait to get your money from the closing of the estate instead. 

Heirs need to sign a bunch of paperwork, and the lender will have lots of questions for the beneficiary and executor to make sure it’s likely the lender will be repaid. 

I wouldn’t call this a good option, but it is an option. I think it’s not used as much as we think it would be, because people simply don’t know about.

Can I delay paying estate bills?

Yes, you can try to juggle and pay only the immediate bills, and delay or defer the rest until there’s cash available.

 

 

An example of this would be negotiating to pay upon the sale of the home or business. For instance, an appraiser may want $500 up front to do the appraisal, but maybe you can offer to pay them $1,000 (but not until the closing of the sale). 

This option requires savvy and experience to determine who will bend vs. what bills are important and must be paid now. Negotiating doesn’t necessarily mean that letters will stop coming from the debt collectors and such. You will likely continue to receive monthly notices until they are paid. 

In conclusion, none of these options are great, but it’s what you do if you’re stuck in that situation. To dig into this topic a little more, please check out my book, “How Probate Works,” available on Amazon.