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Again, thank you for your answer. There was and is never an option, the money will be divided equally amongst the children, that was Mom and Dads wishes. We require nothing more as it was our honor and duty to care for them. We just wanted to make sure we could take care of her final expenses. Splitting the money will do nothing in healing wounds, but it will allow us to walk away with our integrity. :)
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My sister did the same thing as soon as my dad passed away. She got her name on my mom's checking account as the joint owner of the account. She used fear tactics to convince my mom that if she were to die we wouldn't have access to her money and wouldn't be able to have a funeral and bury her!! Ludicrous, but it worked and my mom fell for it without discussing it with any of the other siblings. I spoke to the IRS about this and the response was that the money in their joint account becomes my sister's at such time as she spends it if my mom is still living. So say she spends $50k on a car out of this joint account while my mom is still alive, that would be considered a gift of $50k from our mother to her. Any amount exceeding the $14,000 annual limit is fully taxable, so our mother would owe gift tax on $36,000 (probably about $12k or so). Once our mother passes away, it becomes 100% my sister's money and is not part of our mom's estate. It is treated by the IRS at that point as inheritance and is only taxed if it exceeds the $5M or so limit. Let's say there is $500k in that account and all that was left in our mother's estate was her furniture and car. So the Will would direct that the value of the furn and car be split 4 ways. Nothing ÷ 4 = nothing. She would get her 1/4 share of that meager amount, plus all of the $500k in their joint account. At that point, if she found it in her cold, cold heart to split it with her 3 siblings (doubtful), that would be considered a gift from her to each of us, and the gift tax would apply to each of those gifts, leaving her with a tax bill for the applicable percentage of gift tax on each "gift" exceeding $14k . So for each of us 3 other siblings she would owe about $50k in gift tax. Do you think she will pay that out of her own pocket? H*ll no...she will expect us to pay it. So that lowers each of our share of the 4-way split substantially. So even though the Will could direct all assets in the estate to be split evenly among me and my 3 siblings, any POD designations and jointly held assets are not included in the estate. This way she circumvents our parents' intentions to divide everything equally to their four children and gets the bulk of the assets all to herself. I am the only one of the other 3 siblings that seems to have a clue about how all this works. It is so frustrating and if I even speak to my mom about her financial matters I am labeled "greedy". I am the one child she has that really doesn't need the money, but hate to see my sister play us all for the fools some of us TRULY are. Ughhhhh So Ducksfan, keep in mind that if you do divide the money in the joint account there will be tax consequences if each person's share exceeds $14,000.
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Just as an afterthought...if you decide to share the remaining funds in the joint account you could pay your husband's siblings up to the annual $14k limit each year until their share is fully paid out, thus avoiding the gift tax.
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My mother put me as joint on her bank account of 62 thousand, She died and I want to Split the money with my siblings. Can I gift them the money!
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Tammy, if you decide to split the money be aware that you will pay a big tax penalty for the amount over the allowed gifting limit. It would be best to get some advice from a CPA and spread the gifts over several years to avoid such taxes.
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I was told by a bank that I was a pod on some accounts that my mother owned , my dad was the signer, but my parents had a revocable trust. The bank had me wait over a week and then turned around and said that my parents set up the accounts that way and I would not get anything. I think they called my dad and gave him time to sign that he was joint owner, then why did they tell me I was POA beneficiary. My dad hates me and is probably going to be taking my name off of everything now so just because they have a trust I get nothing. I took care of my mother for many many years and gave up my whole life for her and I get absolutely nothing, because as i said I am almost positive that my father only put my name down on stuff to make it look good while my mother was alive and now i am going to be totally disinherited because 2 days after my mother passed he kicked me out , hasn't talk to me, if I go there he tells me get away and never come back to the house again. He pulled some real fast ones to make sure that I did not receive anything. So what is the purpose of putting my name on stuff when my father gets everything even money my mother inherited from my aunt that my father claimed was his because he told my mom it was marital property and literally made my mother leave everything to him.
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I wanted to correct a previous post of mine on this thread regarding gift taxes on amounts in excess of $14,000. At the time I only had part of the information about how the gift tax works. Actually, you are required to declare gifts in excess of $14k to each individual in any given tax year. But there is no gift tax owed on it. As of 2016, each individual can gift up to $5.45 million over their lifetime. So that's $10.9 million per couple that can be gifted tax-free during their lifetime. You just have to account for any gifts over $14k per individual on your tax return each year. If one spouse dies the other spouse can use their $5.45 million exclusion ONLY if they elect "portability" of the gift tax exclusion on the deceased spouse's estate tax return. If the living spouse fails to make that election, they lose the deceased spouse's exclusion and are subject to gift tax once they exceed accumulated gifts in excess of $5.45 million. Most of us don't have to worry about exceeding that amount, much less the combined $10.9 million amount, but if you have a high net worth it's something to keep in mind. So please disregard the info I stated previously about possible gift taxes being owed on amounts gifted to individuals. It only comes into play once you exceed the exclusion amount. My apologies for the error and any confusion caused.
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