Final income tax return

What it means

The final return reports income up to the date of death. Income the estate receives afterwards belongs on the estate's own return, not this one.

It is filed on the ordinary schedule for that tax year, not on a schedule measured from the death, and a surviving spouse may be able to file jointly for that year.

A refund due on a final return may need a specific form for the person claiming it.

Why it matters

It is easy to miss entirely, because nothing prompts it and it is due long after the death.

The split between the final return and the estate's return is the point families most often get wrong, and it decides which return an item of income is taxed on.

When you are likely to meet it

• In the tax year following a death.
• When income arrives after the death for work done before it.
• When a refund is owed to somebody who has died.

Related terms

• Employer identification number for an estateA tax identification number for the estate itself, which becomes its own taxpayer once the person's Social Security number stops being usable.
• Estate taxA tax on the value of what somebody left, paid by the estate before anything is distributed.
• ExecutorThe person named in a will to carry it out — once a court actually appoints them.
• Executor compensationAn executor may generally be paid for the work. The payment is taxable income; an inheritance usually is not.
• Fiduciary returnThe income tax return an estate or trust files for money it earns after the death.
• Income in respect of a decedentIncome the person had earned but not received when they died, taxed to whoever receives it.
• Personal representativeThe neutral term for whoever is authorized to act for an estate, whether named in a will or appointed by a court.

Official sources

The authority this page describes, at the agency that publishes it. Sahvelo does not restate a rule from a secondary source.

• IRS — information for a deceased person (opens in a new tab)

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Taxes after a death
• Final pay