I feel so screwed..... (kinda long)

[December99]

This past weekend my brother and I went down to the lawyer to discuss my mom's estate. Something that his legal assistant had said to me earlier in the week about funds we received from her 401K's, other investment funds, and a Roth IRA that they forgot to cash in had me in an uproar regarding our taxes, etc. We found that we didn't HAVE to put the money we received from those things listed above and that yes, we do have to claim those monies on our taxes (we were told that we needed to put those checks into the estate at the time we received them). So long story short - the money we are getting from this Roth that I found last week will be coming to us and we are to keep it. The lawyer is going to cut a check to us for the amounts (most of them - some of it needed to be used for the estate to pay on the house - another long story) back to each of us.

Well - what to my surprise when I receive my 1099 yesterday for the largest amount that we received from her funds (she had several funds through Edward D Jones and they cut one check) and THERE ARE NO TAXES TAKEN OUT!!!! I swore up and down that we told them we wanted the taxes taken out so we wouldn't get hit in the end at tax time (fast forward to now from September). So I called down today to find out what happened and the lady at EDJ says - well I thought about calling you to see if that was right - that you didn't want any taxes taken out - HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!! And you didn't call????? UGH!!!! So now what usually is a very nice tax refund that I look forward to (this money pays off some of my bills that I accumulate and gives me some spending money that I usually don't have so I can get some things like clothes and shoes) will now probably not come and we will probably be looking at paying into taxes this year. Well to top this off - my brother who has no money is going to freak!!! - the lawyer tells us not to touch the check that he will be sending to us for at least 30-60 days until he makes sure that there will be no claims from the creditors that we don't have the money to pay (this money coming back to us was suppose to be our money and not used for anything regarding the estate but just in case he doesn't want us to spend it - it's a good amount). So screw them...if I have to - I'm going to touch that money to pay these taxes...I'm so mad!!!! I just feel so screwed!!!!! UGH

Word of warning - make sure you double check over all paperwork you sign - as I swear I had marked to taxes out - I just wish I had a copy of it!!!!!!

 

[binny]

((((Hugs))))

Im so sorry!!! That just STINKS!!!

 

[tigercat]

I always get a copy of anything that I have to sign just for the reasons you mentioned. That way I can check things out and have a leg to stand on. Learn't the hard way.
tigercat

 

[December99]

I knew I should have gotten a copy and the lawyer office was keeping a copy so I didn't think anything about it. I kept copies of the ones that I had to send myself....

Yup valuable lesson to learn!

 

[WillyJ]

Chris,

I sure understand your frustration. . . nothing more irritating then having a specific request ignored like that!!

I will say this though: while it's always nice to get a refund at the end of the tax year, really what that represents is an interest-free loan to the government. . .

If it were me, I'd take all the info to your tax preparer, including both your projected incomes, probable write-offs, etc. and have them work up a estimate of what you'd have to pay (if any) now to break even on your taxes next year-

Take the difference and put it in something where you earn a little interest; and then if you want to, cash it out next April or whenever you'd normally get a refund check.. .


Good luck with whatever you decide though; it's so hard losing
a loved one like that anyway; and then having to deal with all the legal and financial BS just adds insult to injury. .

{{{Hugs}}} my friend. . hope you can get it all straightened out soon!

 

[Jenzebelle]

That's horrible

My Grandparents wound up having to pay $100,000.00 in taxes last year because of a screw up with my Great-Grandmother's estate. It was a huge hassle and a lot of work to figure out what went wrong.

Sorry you have to go through this

 

[Boots]

{HUGS} and then some more. My dad has put my name on most of his things to keep me from inheriting it. I own his house already but he legally can live there for life. Like I would kick him out of his own house or something. Anyway he did this because of a bunch of taxes he and my mother once ended up paying.

 

[December99]

Well...I'll tell ya - at least I've learned enough to know so I'm prepared when my dad passes away....and enough to know how to maybe help my dd when I pass....what a crazy system!!!!

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I didn't think attorney's issued any checks until the estate is closed in case any creditors do pop up.

As for the tax issue...that really stinks. EDJ should have called and double checked before doing that.

 

[Rajah]

I'm sorry, Chris. This has been one nightmare after another for you, hasn't it?

 

[December99]

That's what I thought too MJ but apparently he's doing up "loan paperwork" and considering our money that was sent to us and we signed over and put in the estate account a "loan to the estate" to make sure there was coverage for everything that needed to be covered - which was not much. In all we are losing about $3000 each probably due to things that there wouldn't have been enough money in the estate. He's leaving enough money in there to pay the accountant for the taxes and for his fees. And then anything after that will get reimbursed back to us - probably about $1000 more each.

Yea Rajah...it has been one mess over another. I just wish there would have been a way to find this out BEFORE mom died - she just had a lot of pride and didn't want us to know. I know my dh and I could have helped her out some so all this debt wouldn't have been accumulated. I'm just thankful that my dad is in very good financial state - won't have all this headache when he goes....

 

[nativetxn]

Thanks for the excellent advice. Sorry you learned the hard way, Chris. Dealing with these issues can be so frutrating.

{{{HUGS}}} sweetie.

Katholyn