Filing a tax return after a parent dies Review bank statements to see if there is any indication her income climbed enough in her last years to require filing an income tax return.

For example, in 2025, a couple with four children can gift a total of $152,000 to their children ($19,000 per spouse to each child) without triggering the gift-tax-return requirement.

I was the executor of her trust and told the attorney I hired to help settle the estate that I would file her final tax return. I never did. That was 10 years ago.