Death and taxes — they truly can't be avoided

Newsday.com

If a person's income was subject to taxes, death doesn't relieve him of the obligation to file a tax return. It doesn't matter whether he died in 2014 or in 2015. If his 2014 income was subject to taxes, his survivors must file a 2014 tax return for him. In most cases, no 2015 tax return will be required for a person who died very early in 2015, says Alan E. Weiner, a Melville tax accountant. But if the decedent's estate receives enough 2015 income after his date of death — for example, investment or rental income — in 2016, his executor may have to file a 2015 income tax return for the estate. (The estate's income tax return is a "fiduciary" return, filed on Form 1041.) Any tax that's due is paid from the estate's assets.