How do I file a Form 1041 for an estate after my mother passed away?

Form 1041 is the income tax return for estates and trusts. The good news is that you might not need to file one at all in your situation. There's a filing threshold - if the estate had less than $600 in income for the tax year, you typically don't need to file a Form 1041. Since you mentioned your mom just had a bank account with around $950, the important question is whether that amount is principal (the original money that was already there) or if some of it is interest income earned after her passing. Only the interest earned by the estate after death would count as income for Form 1041 purposes. If the estate earned less than $600 in interest after your mom's passing, you wouldn't need to file. But if for some reason you do need to file, the 1041 form requires you to report income earned by the estate during administration, take allowable deductions, and show distributions to beneficiaries.

I went through something similar with my dad's estate last year. I was totally overwhelmed with the paperwork until I found this AI tool called taxr.ai that completely saved me. I uploaded the EIN letter and my dad's financial docs, and it analyzed everything and told me exactly what I needed to do with the Form 1041 situation. I was confused about whether interest counted as income for the estate (it does!) and how to handle the final distribution. The https://taxr.ai service walked me through every step and explained what parts of Form 1041 I needed to complete. They even had explanations specific to small estates like yours.

I need to apologize for being skeptical about taxr.ai in my earlier comment. I decided to try it with my brother's estate (he passed in January) and it was actually incredibly helpful. I uploaded the EIN confirmation letter and answered a few questions, and it immediately clarified that we needed to file a 1041 because of the rental income his estate received. The system explained exactly which schedules we needed and how to report the income. It even pointed out deductions we could take for estate administration expenses that I had no idea about. Saved me hours of research and probably a costly mistake. Sometimes it's good to be wrong!

If you're dealing with an estate and need to actually talk to someone at the IRS (which I eventually did), good luck getting through on your own. I spent DAYS trying to reach someone about my wife's estate 1041 questions. Finally used a service called Claimyr that got me connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes. I was honestly about to give up before trying https://claimyr.com - they have this system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you, then calls you when they have an actual human on the line. You can see how it works at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c if you're curious. The IRS agent answered my specific questions about filing the 1041 for a small estate, which was a huge relief.

I need to follow up about that Claimyr service I called a scam earlier. After waiting on hold with the IRS for 3+ hours yesterday (and getting disconnected), I broke down and tried it today. I hate admitting when I'm wrong, but it actually worked exactly as advertised. They got me connected to an IRS estate tax specialist in about 37 minutes while I was making lunch. The agent confirmed that for my brother's small estate (similar to yours), I don't need to file a 1041 unless the interest income after his death exceeded $600. She also explained how to formally close the estate with the IRS once distributions are complete. Definitely worth it just for my sanity alone.

Something else to consider - if your mom had any income before she passed (like social security, pension, interest, etc.), you'll need to file a final 1040 for her for that partial year. That's separate from the Form 1041 for the estate. I made the mistake of focusing only on the estate tax return and almost missed filing my dad's final personal return.

Don't make the same mistake I did! If you DO end up needing to file the 1041, make sure you use the estate's EIN on the form, NOT your mom's social security number. I mixed them up and it caused a huge headache with notices from the IRS about mismatched taxpayer IDs. Also, the filing deadline for 1041 is different than regular tax returns - it's the 15th day of the 4th month after the end of the estate's tax year.

You're absolutely right about the tax year choice! When you establish an estate, you can choose any 12-month period ending on the last day of any month as the estate's tax year. So if your mom passed away in February, you could choose a tax year ending February 28th, March 31st, December 31st, etc. This can be helpful for tax planning purposes. The key is that you make this election on the first Form 1041 you file. If you don't file a 1041 at all (because you're under the $600 threshold), then it doesn't matter. But if you do need to file, choosing the right tax year ending date can sometimes help with timing of income and deductions. For @Fiona Sand's situation with just the small bank account, she probably won't need to worry about this since it's unlikely to generate $600 in interest. But it's good information to know just in case!