Saturday, December 21, 2013

Of course there's more. There's ALWAYS more.

My late mother's home sold at auction on December 9, so I thought the hassles about her reverse mortgage had to be over. I created a spreadsheet that cataloged the assets and debits, made copies of each receipt listed, carefully composed a cover letter and sent a packet off to each of my sisters -- first class mail and tracking. My heinous older sister's packet includes a check. (Of the $14000+ that was required to handle my mother's final expenses, she contributed $1000. Of that, she's getting $333.49 back.) According to USPS's tracking service, the package was delivered to Ms. Heinous at 3 PM today. So I should be able to sit back and say to myself, "Yea! It's finally over!" More than a year after her death, I can now think of my mother exclusively as my mother, and not as a legal entity, right?

Not right.

I got a notice from the IRS, saying that I owe $537 on the MetLife stock I deposited into my checking account when we collected on our mother's life insurance at the end of 2012. I'm not sure I do owe it -- in the past, whenever I have heard from the IRS, it has turned out that they were wrong and my accountant was right and it was resolved amicably and in my favor. But it has never been resolved quickly, and the IRS insists they need to hear from me by January 8. With the holidays, I didn't even bother to call my accountant, I just cut the check. According to the paperwork, I can always appeal it in the future.

The impossible part would be squeezing another penny out of my heinous older sister. If I do owe the $537, $179 is her fair share of the tax liability. Yeah, right. Life "fair share" has ever meant anything to her.

I have given up hope that this will EVER be over.


2 comments:

  1. Oh, Gal. What a bummer!

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  2. I hope your heinous older sister stays out of your life with this. You deserve a little peace after all the hard work you've put in managing your Mom's estate. It must have made it hard to grieve. My thoughts are with you.

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