Tuesday, December 11, 2007

hmmm...I have 4 or 5 abandoned escrows for PA inheritance taxes on my desk

The escrows have expired. The amounts we collected are likely more than the actual tax that might be owed. The folks whose money we are holding decided not to follow up and file inheritance tax returns.

Well, I'll just be sending all of this cash to the PA Dept. of Revenue at the end of the month.

Go figure.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Diane,

Why not contact Kenneth Henderson, Esq, Chief Counsel in Harrisburg? He is very helpful and will provide the amount necessary to inheritance tax on the real property. Once paid, he will issue a Release of Lien, to be filed at the Register of Wills Office. The Release of Lien will take care of any inheritance tax issues on the real property.

I am home, so I do not have his information handy. If you would like, call or email me at your convenience.

Kimberly R. Kline
River's Edge Abstract
(215) 321-8295 phone
kim@riversedgeonline.com

D said...

I know, Kim. We get a release when we send the info and funds to the PA Dept. of Revenue.

The reason I posted this info is that these files contain insuffient data on the deceased to accurately calculate and pay a tax. We escrow more than we think the tax will be so that folks have an incentive to pursue resolution on their own. We give them one year to resolve it and then we send the entire amount less our escrow fees to Harrisburg.

D said...

Of course, the Department is more than happy to take all the cash.

PS Thanks for commenting. I do appreciate it because there are certain to be readers out there who are unfamiliar with releases.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I hear you. We used to have way too many dead end inheritance tax escrows. So, we no longer close with an escrow unless it is an estate with alot of assets. If not, we require enough info up front, so that we may get an acceptable number from the State and pay the inheritance tax at settlement.

Never hurts to get a glimpse of someone elses "bag of tricks".

Kim

D said...

Absolutely. Frankly a few years ago, I would have kissed you for the advice. I had a bunch of inheritance tax escrows sitting around and neither my underwriter or my attorney could tell me how to resolve them. Year to year, I just looked at those crazy files.

Even when I called the Dept. of Revenue, they said escheat the money and I asked to whom? I can't say it's owed the parties because a tax is owed and finally someone there told me to send it in and request an release. Thank heavens!

You don't know what you don't know until you know it. ;)