grumpyoldlady asked:
My cousin was personal rep for my late aunt’s estate…in Michigan. Everything I have read indicates that the first 2 million dollars of the estate is tax exempt. The estate was only $274,000, so should be totally exempt, yet my cousin paid over $30,000 in 2006 estate tax and about $3,000 to Michigan estate tax. NOW comes the kicker…2 days after he signed the final papers ending his responsibility for the estate, he died! Am I right that he should not have paid the $30,000 and $3,000 because of the exemption that SHOULD have been taken? NOW WHAT???? I just received final papers to sign that will go to Probate and then I will receive my part of the estate. If I sign, and that $30,000 was paid in error to the Feds, can the estate recoup the money? What should I do? The attorney apparently assumed that the return filed was correct or he would not have sent us the final papers to sign off on . I know $30,000 is not a big sum, but to me, 1/4 of that is a lot of money!
Moses Filarecki
My cousin was personal rep for my late aunt’s estate…in Michigan. Everything I have read indicates that the first 2 million dollars of the estate is tax exempt. The estate was only $274,000, so should be totally exempt, yet my cousin paid over $30,000 in 2006 estate tax and about $3,000 to Michigan estate tax. NOW comes the kicker…2 days after he signed the final papers ending his responsibility for the estate, he died! Am I right that he should not have paid the $30,000 and $3,000 because of the exemption that SHOULD have been taken? NOW WHAT???? I just received final papers to sign that will go to Probate and then I will receive my part of the estate. If I sign, and that $30,000 was paid in error to the Feds, can the estate recoup the money? What should I do? The attorney apparently assumed that the return filed was correct or he would not have sent us the final papers to sign off on . I know $30,000 is not a big sum, but to me, 1/4 of that is a lot of money!
Moses Filarecki

The error he should be able to the atty who sent you the error is an error is an.