Post-Mortem Planning Taken Too Far - False Estate Tax Return = Jail Time

Category: Estate and Inheritance Tax

Filing a false estate tax return can land you in jail.

From OA Online News, an Odessa Texas attorney, Stephen C. Ashley, took the idea of post-mortem planning in his father's estate a little too far when he created backdated gift deeds falsely reflecting that his father had deeded some of his ranch to his sons before he died, having them falsely executed and notarized.

"�We all own the responsibility to deal with the government honestly,� [Assistant U.S. Attorney John S.] Klassen said. [U.S. District Judge Robert] Junell then sentenced Ashley to two concurrent two-year prison terms for filing a false U.S. Estate Tax Return and unlawfully conspiring to defraud the IRS in its efforts to collect estate taxes. "