Taxpayer died October 12th of 2020 without a trust or a will.  The probate court appointed an Administrator and issued Letters of Administration in April of 2022.  The only asset was a single family home, which was sold in February of 2023.

I believe I need to file a "first" and "final" 1041 for the estate to report the sale of the home.  There is no gain on the sale of the home.  In fact, the value of the home decreased and was sold for over $50k less than its FMV on date of death.

Questions:

1)  In Lacerte, would the "Date Entity Created " reported on page 1 of the 1041 be the date of death (October of 2020)?   

2)  If we use date of death as the date the estate was created, will it raise any red flags with the IRS that we have not filed any Forms 1041 prior to 2023?   The estate did not have any income, and therefore no filing requirement, in 2020, 2021 or 2022, so I don't think this should be a problem, but have not had this situation before.

3)  Can we choose to use either a calendar year or a fiscal year since this is an estate?    For example, if the estate was created in October of 2020 and the house was sold in February of 2023, can we file the Form 1041 using a short fiscal year beginning October 1, 2022 and ending February 2023 (after house was sold and distributions were completed)?

Thank you for any help / advice.