A federal district court recently held that “transferees and surviving joint tenants of estate property were personally liable for the unpaid tax, penalty, and interest.” When joint tenants of the estate failed to make all tax payments, the IRS did not calculate the interest and failure-to-pay penalty because of a computer system problem. The Court imposed liability for the interest and penalty and held that equitable estoppel did not apply because the IRS misrepresentation about the taxes owed was caused by the computer system failure, and was not “affirmative misconduct.”
See Transferees Liable for Unpaid Estate Tax, Resourceforlaw, 2015.
