Missing social security numbers

[Ruth1]

I am preparing a Form1041 for a deceased taxpayer for which there are 10 beneficiaries. 7 of the 10 beneficiary's refuse to give their SSN. due to in fighting.

The attorney and I have tried everything but to no avail. Some have suggested I use "requested" in the field for SSN.  I happened to be on the phone with the practitioners hotline on another issue and asked about remedies.to this one.. After being juggled around departments I got somebody who said the IRS does not advise or give guidance as this is technical . She went onto say it was up to my industry (CPA's) to decide what to do but if I failed to provide SSN's I could personally be held responsible for preparer penalties. Has anyone run into this? Does anyone have any advice?

[IRonMaN · Accepted solution]

But the key to all of these issues are quite simple.  Before any checks are cut to the beneficiaries, they have to provide their Social Security numbers.  No SS#, no check --------------- simple as can be.  If the attorney was in charge of distributions, I would put his name and number on the K-1s -------------- just to give him incentive to do it correctly in the future.

[Ruth1]

Oddly they don't care about checks.  Bizarre I know.  

[Accountant-Man]

If you as the estate accountant needs to maintain records indefinitely, you can bill them for your time, $100 a month to do virtually nothing, until they provide the information. Pretty soon there will be no distributions, just accounting fees.

[IRonMaN]

Not a bad idea, but I think I would go with $101.18.  The $100 dollars sounds like a number that was just pulled out of the air while the $101.18 sounds like it has some basis to it.

[poolcleaner]

Send them a Form W-9 by Certified, Return Receipt Requested mail and document their refusal to supply their SSN.

[Ruth1]

We have done this, thank you .

[TaxGuyBill]

What about a certified letter from the Attorney telling the beneficiaries that the required tax return will not be filed until they provide that information, and that they will be held personally responsible for the late penalties?

I doubt if this would be legal, but it would be nice if the lawyer could tell them that if they do not provide that information by a certain date, they will no longer be a beneficiary.  

[abctax55]

Same story/answer...

https://accountants-community.intuit.com/questions/1774833-social-security-number-missing

Did you change your user name from "Ruth" to "ruth", or is this just an odd coincidence?

[IRonMaN]

It saves Intuit a ton of money on toner costs by dropping the capital letter.

[Ruth1]

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.  Pardon me for bothering you with two questions.

[abctax55]

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."  

@ me?  I was pointing out that two threads on the exact same topic is inefficient.
@IRonMaN ?  Jeff was just making a joke.

[George4Tacks]

@Ruth or @Ruth what is meant that you appear to have two very similar user names. One just starting asking questions and the other has been around for quite a while. Sometimes we meter our response based on what experience the user seems to have. Try to use this account https://accountants-community.intuit.com/users/205d1003-8c36-4a43-8276-1772c0d7004a instead of this account https://accountants-community.intuit.com/users/ba6c6566-9c18-42a0-8520-17fb678019ed

[Ruth]

Thank you George for explaining. I have no clue as to how I have two accounts. Perhaps when I updated an email? I will try and delete the second one.

[George4Tacks]

I doubt you can delete it. Change the name from ruth to something you would recognize, but not use. Or change the Ruth to something fancier. I am on about my 4th user name change so that my old stuff won't get caught. :wink: