Duties: Taxes After a Death (2025 IRS Guide)
This guide covers “Duties” within taxes after a death. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.
Adapted from Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.
Context for these rules
A personal representative of an estate is an executor, administrator, or anyone who is in charge of the decedent's property. Generally, an executor (or executrix) is named in a decedent's will to administer the estate and distribute properties as the decedent has directed. An administrator (or administratrix) is usually appointed by the court if no will exists, if no executor was named in the will, or if the named executor can't or won't serve.
In general, an executor and an administrator perform the same duties and have the same responsibilities.
For estate tax purposes, if there is no executor or administrator appointed, qualified, and acting within the United States, the term “executor” includes anyone in actual or constructive possession of any property of the decedent. It includes, among others, the decedent's agents and representatives; safe-deposit companies, warehouse companies, and other custodians of property in this country; brokers holding securities of the decedent as collateral; and the debtors of the decedent who are in this country.
Duties
The primary duties of a personal representative are to collect all the decedent's assets, pay the decedent’s creditors, and distribute the remaining assets to the heirs or other beneficiaries.
The personal representative must also perform the following duties.
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Apply for an employer identification number (EIN) for the estate.
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File all tax returns, including income, estate, and gift tax returns, when due.
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Pay the tax determined up to the date of discharge from duties.
Penalty.
There is a penalty for failure to file a tax return when due unless the failure is due to reasonable cause. Reliance on an agent (attorney, accountant, etc.) isn't reasonable cause for late filing. It is the personal representative's duty to file the returns for the decedent and the estate when due.
Identification number.
The first action you should take if you’re the personal representative for the decedent is to apply for an EIN for the estate. You should apply for this number as soon as possible because you need to enter it on returns, statements, and other documents you file concerning the estate. You must also give the identification number to payers of interest and dividends and other payers who must file a return concerning the estate.
You can get an EIN by applying online at IRS.gov/EIN. Generally, if you apply online, you will receive your EIN immediately upon completing the application. You can also apply using Form SS-4. Generally, if you apply by mail, it takes about 4 weeks to get your EIN. See IRS.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Employer-ID-Numbers-EINs for other ways to apply.
Payers of interest and dividends report amounts on Forms 1099 using the identification number of the person to whom the account is payable. After a decedent's death, Forms 1099 must reflect the identification number (EIN, individual identification number (ITIN), or social security number (SSN)) of the estate or beneficiary to whom the amounts are payable. As the personal representative handling the estate, you must furnish this identification number to the payer. For example, if interest is payable to the estate, the estate's EIN must be provided to the payer and used to report the interest on Form 1099-INT. If the interest is payable to a surviving joint owner, the survivor's identification number, such as an SSN or ITIN, must be provided to the payer and used to report the interest.
If the estate or a survivor may receive interest or dividends after you inform the payer of the decedent's death, the payer should give you (or the survivor) a Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, or a similar substitute form. Complete this form to inform the payer of the estate's (or if completed by the survivor, the survivor's) identification number and return it to the payer.
Caution:
Don't use the deceased individual's identifying number to file an individual income tax return after the decedent's final tax return. Also don't use the decedent's identifying number to make estimated tax payments for a tax year after the year of death.
Penalty.
If you don't include the EIN or the taxpayer identification number (TIN) of another person where it is required on a return, statement, or other document, you are liable for a penalty for each failure, unless you can show reasonable cause. You are also liable for a penalty if you don't give the TIN of another person when required on a return, statement, or other document.
Notice of fiduciary relationship.
The term “fiduciary” means any person acting for another person. It applies to persons who have positions of trust on behalf of others. It generally includes a guardian, trustee, executor, administrator, receiver, or conservator. A personal representative for a decedent's estate is also a fiduciary.
Form 56.
If you are appointed to act in a fiduciary capacity for another, you must file a written notice with the IRS stating this. Form 56 is used for this purpose. See the Instructions for Form 56 for filing requirements and other information.
File Form 56 as soon as all the necessary information (including the EIN) is available. It notifies the IRS that you, as the fiduciary, are assuming the powers, rights, duties, and privileges of the decedent. The notice remains in effect until you notify the IRS (by filing another Form 56) that your fiduciary relationship with the estate has terminated.
Termination of fiduciary relationship.
Form 56 should also be filed to notify the IRS if your fiduciary relationship is terminated or when a successor fiduciary is appointed if the estate hasn't been terminated. See Form 56 and its instructions for more information.
At the time of termination of the fiduciary relationship, you may want to file Form 4810, Request for Prompt Assessment Under Internal Revenue Code Section 6501(d), and Form 5495, Request for Discharge From Personal Liability Under Internal Revenue Code Section 2204 or 6905, to wind up your duties as fiduciary. See below for a discussion of these forms.
Request for prompt assessment (charge) of tax.
The IRS ordinarily has 3 years from the date an income tax return is filed, or its due date, whichever is later, to charge any additional tax due. However, as a personal representative, you may request a prompt assessment of tax after the return has been filed. This reduces the time for making the assessment to 18 months from the date the written request for prompt assessment was received. This request can be made for any tax return (except the estate tax return) of the decedent or the decedent's estate. This may permit a quicker settlement of the tax liability of the estate and an earlier final distribution of the assets to the beneficiaries.
Form 4810.
Form 4810 can be used for making this request. It must be filed separately from any other document.
As the personal representative for the decedent's estate, you are responsible for any additional taxes that may be due. You can request prompt assessment of any of the decedent's taxes (other than federal estate taxes) for any years for which the statutory period for assessment is open. This applies even though the returns were filed before the decedent's death.
Failure to report income.
If you or the decedent failed to report substantial amounts of gross income (more than 25% of the gross income reported on the return) or filed a false or fraudulent return, your request for prompt assessment won't shorten the period during which the IRS may assess the additional tax. However, such a request may relieve you of personal liability for the tax if you didn't have knowledge of the unpaid tax.
Request for discharge from personal liability for tax.
An executor can make a request for discharge from personal liability for a decedent's income, gift, and estate taxes. The request must be made after the returns for those taxes are filed. To make the request, file Form 5495. For this purpose, an executor is an executor or administrator that is appointed, qualified, and acting within the United States.
Within 9 months after receipt of the request, the IRS will notify the executor of the amount of taxes due. If this amount is paid, the executor will be discharged from personal liability for any future deficiencies. If the IRS hasn’t notified the executor at the end of the 9-month period, the executor will be discharged from personal liabilities.
Caution:
Even if the executor is discharged from personal liability, the IRS will still be able to assess tax deficiencies against the executor to the extent the executor still has any of the decedent's property.
Insolvent estate.
Generally, if a decedent's estate is insufficient to pay all the decedent's debts, the debts due to the United States must be paid first. Both the decedent's federal income tax liabilities at the time of death and the estate's income tax liability are debts due to the United States. The personal representative of an insolvent estate is personally responsible for any tax liability of the decedent or of the estate if the personal representative had notice of such tax obligations or failed to exercise due care in determining if such obligations existed before distribution of the estate's assets and before being discharged from duties. The extent of such personal responsibility is the amount of any other payments made before paying the debts due to the United States, except where such other debt paid has priority over the debts due to the United States. Income tax liabilities need not be formally assessed for the personal representative to be liable if the personal representative was aware or should have been aware of their existence.
Using the guidance
Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.
Sources and further reading
- Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators: Personal Representative — Duties — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.
The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.