flyfishnevada
Full time employment: Posting here.
As all the regulars know, my father in law become ill last winter and died in March. His estate is a mess. He hadn't paid federal income taxes in three years. His life insurance was in many different people's names, mainly old girlfriends. It sucked to find the paperwork to change one into my DW's name sitting in a pile of papers. He never sent it in and his old girlfriend said she would give it to us to help with the funeral expenses we had to pick up cause he never paid for that either, but she changed her mind and kept it.
We thought we were just about home free. His estate wasn't large, but we stood to get a mid 5-figure inheritance and after cleaning up his incredibly messy home, trying to get his affairs in order, etc., we figured we'd actually kind of earned it.
Then, last week my DW wondered about Oregon state income tax. She thought she'd seen something, but wanted to make sure. It turns out the paperwork was for property taxes so she called the Oregon Dept of Revenue and they informed her he hadn't filed since 1997!
Some quick figuring told us that with interest and penalties, that would wipe his estate out. Luckily, we finally talked to the enforcement division and by policy they only go back 4 years. That's still about $20,000, but better than what we were thinking.
Just venting. My DW's dad left the family when she was a kid and then when she was about 25 he found religion (literately) and wanted to get to know here. He was a nice guy, but sustained a head injury as a firefighter and developed dementia. He wasn't all to blame, but he and DW weren't close. She had no idea. She didn't take care of him hoping to get a big inheritance, she just felt it was the right thing to do. She feels a little dumped on now.
If anything positive has come of this DW talked with her mom and made sure everything was in order. My mom and dad (divorced) are both good to go, so to speak. Plus, we've both learned to make sure this stuff is settled long before we get to old and feeble to let it go to hell.
We thought we were just about home free. His estate wasn't large, but we stood to get a mid 5-figure inheritance and after cleaning up his incredibly messy home, trying to get his affairs in order, etc., we figured we'd actually kind of earned it.
Then, last week my DW wondered about Oregon state income tax. She thought she'd seen something, but wanted to make sure. It turns out the paperwork was for property taxes so she called the Oregon Dept of Revenue and they informed her he hadn't filed since 1997!
Some quick figuring told us that with interest and penalties, that would wipe his estate out. Luckily, we finally talked to the enforcement division and by policy they only go back 4 years. That's still about $20,000, but better than what we were thinking.
Just venting. My DW's dad left the family when she was a kid and then when she was about 25 he found religion (literately) and wanted to get to know here. He was a nice guy, but sustained a head injury as a firefighter and developed dementia. He wasn't all to blame, but he and DW weren't close. She had no idea. She didn't take care of him hoping to get a big inheritance, she just felt it was the right thing to do. She feels a little dumped on now.
If anything positive has come of this DW talked with her mom and made sure everything was in order. My mom and dad (divorced) are both good to go, so to speak. Plus, we've both learned to make sure this stuff is settled long before we get to old and feeble to let it go to hell.