Part VI
Tax IDs, banking, and deadlines
Getting the estate its own tax ID and bank account, the tax filings and the final accounting, and the creditor period that gates the end of the process.
The estate's tax ID and bank account
An estate is a separate legal entity from the person who died and from you. It needs its own tax identification number and its own bank account, and getting both early unblocks most of Phase 2.
The EIN
The estate's Employer Identification Number is its federal tax ID — the equivalent of a Social Security number for the estate. You apply on Form SS-4. Most executors use the IRS online EIN Assistant at irs.gov, which issues the number immediately; paper filing is also accepted and takes considerably longer.
The IRS mails back a confirmation letter — a CP-575, or a 147C if you request a replacement later. Upload it. It's kept for you and goes into the executor proof packet that banks ask to see, though Heirwise doesn't read any data out of it — you'll just be glad not to be hunting for it later.
Get the EIN before you go to the bank, not after. The bank will ask for it to open the estate account, and a wasted trip here is a common early stumble.
Short certificates
A short certificate is the compact, certified proof from the Register of Wills that you are the appointed executor. It's what institutions actually want — few will accept a photocopy of your Letters.
Order several. Each institution tends to keep the one you give it, and going back to the courthouse for more is a trip you can avoid by asking for a handful up front.
The estate bank account
Open a dedicated checking account in the estate's name using the new EIN. Every dollar the estate receives goes in; every dollar it pays out comes from it. Do this early — most of what follows in Phase 2 assumes the estate has somewhere of its own to move money through.
Never mix estate funds with personal funds — not even briefly, not even for convenience, not even intending to pay yourself back. Commingling is one of the clearest breaches of fiduciary duty, it is obvious in hindsight, and it undermines your credibility on everything else you did correctly.
One clean account also makes your final accounting nearly self-writing. The statements are the record of what you did, in order, with dates.
The four tax filings
Four separate reckonings can arise in a Pennsylvania estate — three tax returns plus the final accounting to the court. They go to different authorities and cover different things. Heirwise carries the three tax filings as their own checklist tasks; the final accounting is folded into the task for closing the estate, so watch for it there rather than expecting its own line.
| Filing | Who it's for | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Form 1040 | IRS | The decedent's final personal income tax return, covering January 1 through the date of death. |
| Form 1041 | IRS | The estate's own fiduciary income tax return, required if the estate generates more than $600 of income during administration — interest and dividends, typically. |
| REV-1500 | Pennsylvania | The Pennsylvania inheritance tax return. Heirwise does not prepare or file it — once it's filed, upload a copy so it's on record with the estate. |
| Final accounting | The court | Not a tax return, but the other formal reckoning — filed when you close the estate. |
Heirwise tracks that these filings happen. It does not prepare them, calculate what's owed, or advise on elections and timing. Tax work on an estate is genuinely specialist, deadlines carry penalties, and this is money well spent on an accountant.
Two things worth knowing early
Pennsylvania inheritance tax is charged on what beneficiaries receive, and the rate depends on their relationship to the decedent — a surviving spouse, a child, and a niece are not treated the same. This means the tax consequences of your distribution plan are not uniform across beneficiaries, which is worth raising with your accountant before the plan is locked rather than after.
Estate income tax also catches people out. If the estate holds an interest-bearing account or dividend-paying investments through a long administration, it may cross the threshold for its own return without anyone thinking of the estate as having income.
Ask the accountant about all four at once, early. Which apply and when they're due is a ten-minute conversation up front, versus a scramble later.
The creditor period
Before you can close an estate, creditors must have had a fair chance to come forward. Pennsylvania handles this by requiring you to advertise the estate publicly, which starts a claim window that has to run its course.
- Advertise the estate — in a legal journal and in a local newspaper of general circulation in the county.
- The claim window opens from that first advertisement. It typically runs one year.
- Record the end date in the creditor period section of the Estate Balance Sheet, so Heirwise can gate on it.
- Once that date has passed, the waiting-period check clears on its own.
Advertise as early as you can. This is calendar time you cannot compress or work around, and it usually determines the earliest possible closing date for the whole estate. Every week you delay the advertisement is a week added to the end.
Heirwise cannot know when you advertised, so the end date is one of the few things you set by hand — you'll find the field on the Estate Balance Sheet. Until it's set and in the past, the Phase 3 waiting-period check will not pass, so if Phase 3 looks stalled with everything else green, that date is the first thing to check.
Advertising also matters for your own protection. Having given proper notice is what lets you eventually distribute with confidence that a creditor won't surface afterward with a claim against you personally.
The exact period, and how it interacts with claims that arrive late or are disputed, is a legal question. Heirwise tracks the date you give it; whether a particular claim is still timely is for your attorney.