An inventory of the papers

Deceased estate paperwork: the tax and the property, item by item

After a death, the tax papers come in two sets: one for the person, up to the day they died, and one for the estate they leave behind. Around them sit the house, any other land, and shares. This guide lists each one as a numbered schedule, written from the tax office’s and the registries’ own pages.

i.Before the first item

There are no inheritance or estate taxes in Australia. Tax can still arise on what an estate earns, and later on what a beneficiary sells.
The person and the estate are taxed separately: a date of death return for the person, and trust returns for the estate if it earns income after the death.
For the tax office, the person who acts for the estate with full authority is the authorised legal personal representative: someone holding a grant of probate or letters of administration from a court.
Tax comes before beneficiaries. The ATO asks that every tax obligation be met or provided for before the final distribution.
The ATO puts the usual time to complete an estate’s administration at 6 to 12 months, and says it can take longer.

ii.The schedules

Schedule 1 The date of death tax return Australian Taxation Office
The person’s last return, from 1 July to the day they died: when it is needed, how to lodge it on paper, and what stays out of it.
Schedule 2 Trust tax returns for the estate Australian Taxation Office
The estate’s own returns: its income years, the triggers for lodging, who pays at each stage, and the rates for the first three years.
Schedule 3 Selling the family home: the two-year rule Australian Taxation Office
When an inherited home is free of capital gains tax, how the two years are counted and extended, and a worked partial exemption.
Schedule 4 Transferring land after a death Titles Queensland
Recording a joint tenant’s death, the transmission forms that take land off a person’s name, and what the registry asks for.
Schedule 5 Shares and investments in an estate Australian Taxation Office
Dividends after a death, shares passed on or sold, the cost base either side of 1985, and money gone unclaimed.
Schedule 6 When an estate can be finalised ATO and state courts
The tax checklist before the final distribution, when an executor is protected from the person’s tax, and the clocks state law runs.

iii.The first item on the tax office’s list

The ATO’s own checklist for this work starts before any form, with looking after yourself, and calls that the most important thing.

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iv.About this guide

Deceased Estate is a guide to the tax and property paperwork of a deceased estate in Australia, written and published by Dotto. It is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and it covers the papers rather than the executor’s wider duties or the funeral. The sources for each schedule are listed at the foot of its page.