When the American who never filed has died

Figures relate to tax year 2025 (US)

Executors in Britain sometimes discover, part way through probate, that the person who died was an American citizen who never filed a US return. It is an unwelcome surprise, and it raises an obvious worry about penalties.

The good news is that the IRS wrote estates into its amnesty. The streamlined filing procedures for people living abroad apply to estates of US taxpayers as well as to living ones.

This guide explains how streamlined filing works when the taxpayer has died, who has to sign, and how an executor protects themselves before distributing the estate.

Key takeaways

• The streamlined procedures expressly cover estates of US taxpayers.
• The 330-day non-residency test applies to the person who died.
• The estate files three years of returns and six years of FBARs.
• Tax and interest are due, but the usual penalties are waived.
• The personal representative signs, with Form 56 on file.
• The final return is due by 15 April after the year of death.
• Form 4810 can cut the IRS review period to 18 months.
• A UK executor should settle US tax before distributing the estate.

Can an estate use streamlined filing?

Yes. The IRS page on the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures says individual US taxpayers, or estates of individual US taxpayers, may use them. The estate must meet the same tests as a living taxpayer would. That means the non-residency test and the requirement that the failures came from non-wilful conduct.

So an executor does not need a special programme for a deceased filer. The ordinary route is open.

That matters, because the alternative is filing late returns in the normal way and facing penalties on each one.

How does the non-residency test apply to someone who has died?

The test looks at the person who died, not at the executor. In any one or more of the three most recent years with a passed filing deadline, the deceased must have had no US abode and spent at least 330 full days outside America. Someone who lived in Britain for decades usually passes easily.

The test only needs to be met in one of the three years.

The executor's own residence is irrelevant. An executor in America can file for an estate whose American lived in Britain.

Which years does the estate file?

The procedures require returns for the three most recent years whose due date has passed, and FBARs for the six most recent years whose due date has passed. For someone who died in 2025, the final return for 2025 is due by 15 April 2026, so 2025 would normally be one of the three years.

Count the years from the date you file, not from the date of death.

If the filing slips past a new deadline, the window moves forward by a year. That can add a return and drop the oldest one.

What does the estate actually pay?

The estate pays any US tax shown on the returns, plus interest. In exchange, the IRS waives failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties, accuracy penalties, information return penalties and FBAR penalties. For most Americans in Britain, the foreign tax credit and the exclusion leave little or no US tax to pay.

So a typical British estate may owe nothing at all, or a small amount.

The bigger risk is the information returns. Missing forms on a UK pension or investment fund can carry penalties far larger than the tax.

A worked example for an executor

These figures are illustrative only. A retired American dies in Bristol in March 2025 with a UK state pension, a workplace pension and £200,000 in savings, and no US returns on record. The executor files under streamlined filing in late 2026.

First, the executor identifies the three years: 2023, 2024 and the final return for 2025.

Second, the executor files FBARs for the six years from 2020 to 2025, because the savings exceeded the reporting threshold and all six due dates have passed.

Third, the returns show US tax of $1,200 across the three years after foreign tax credits. The estate pays the $1,200 plus interest, and no penalties apply.

The executor's forms at a glance

Each form below has a different job, and several go to different places. Keeping them straight is most of the administrative work in an estate submission.

Who signs the returns?

According to IRS Publication 559, if a personal representative has been appointed, that person must sign the return. On a joint return the surviving spouse also signs. With no appointed representative and no surviving spouse, the person in charge of the deceased's property signs as personal representative.

In Britain the personal representative is the executor named in the will, or an administrator if there is no will.

Write DECEASED, the person's name and the date of death across the top of each return, as Publication 559 directs.

Who certifies that the failures were non-wilful?

Streamlined filing needs a signed Form 14653, certifying that the failures came from non-wilful conduct. When the taxpayer has died, someone acting for the estate must make that statement. It is made under penalties of perjury, so it must rest on evidence rather than assumption.

Non-wilful means negligence, inadvertence, mistake, or a good faith misunderstanding of the law.

In our practice, for an American who lived in Britain for forty years and never heard of FBARs, that is usually easy to support. Gather letters, bank papers and anything else that shows what the person knew.

Why file Form 56 first?

Form 56 tells the IRS that you are acting as fiduciary for the deceased person. Publication 559 lists it among the personal representative's duties. Filing it means IRS letters about the deceased come to you, and it shows your authority to sign the streamlined filing returns.

File it before or alongside the submission, not afterwards.

Our guide to Form 56 and fiduciary notices explains how to complete it from Britain.

How do you mark and send the submission?

The procedures require the words Streamlined Foreign Offshore written in red at the top of each return and each information return. The original signed Form 14653 goes with the package, with copies attached to each return. Everything goes on paper to the IRS address in Austin listed on the procedures page.

Electronic submission is not accepted for the returns.

Send by a tracked courier and keep a full copy. Probate files tend to be reviewed years later.

How are the deceased's FBARs filed?

FBARs for the six years go electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System, not on paper. The cover page asks why the reports are late. Pick the option marked Other, then type the name of the procedures into the box that appears. The filer details show the executor's role.

Do not attach Form 14653 to the FBARs. The procedures say so expressly.

FinCEN offers contact routes if electronic filing is not possible. Use them rather than posting paper forms.

Can the estate claim a refund?

Yes, if the returns show an overpayment. Publication 559 points to Form 1310, used to claim a refund due to a deceased taxpayer. Refunds are uncommon for Americans in Britain, but they do arise, for example where US tax was withheld from American investment income.

A court-appointed representative filing an original return can skip Form 1310 by attaching the court certificate. On an amended return, Form 1310 is needed with the certificate attached.

Ask for the refund to be paid to the estate, not to the deceased's old account.

How long can the IRS question the returns?

The IRS normally has three years from filing to assess more tax. Publication 559 says a personal representative can ask for prompt assessment using Form 4810. That cuts the period to 18 months from receipt of the request, which helps an executor who wants to close the estate.

File Form 4810 separately from everything else, as the publication requires.

That shorter window is worth having. Executors rarely want to hold back a reserve for three years.

Can a UK executor get a personal discharge?

Publication 559 describes Form 5495, a request for discharge from personal liability for the deceased's income, gift and estate taxes. But it defines the executor for this purpose as one appointed, qualified and acting within the United States. An executor appointed only by a UK court may fall outside that definition.

That is a real gap for British estates. The executor may remain personally exposed if they distribute too early.

So the safer course is to settle the US filings, wait for the IRS response, and keep a reserve until the position is clear.

Does the estate also owe US estate tax?

Usually not. For people who died in 2025 the basic exclusion amount is $13,990,000, rising to $15,000,000 for deaths in 2026, according to the IRS. Most British estates fall well below that. An estate tax return is a separate filing from the income tax returns under streamlined filing.

The worldwide estate counts, including the British home and pensions.

Our guide to a US executor's duties for a UK estate covers the wider estate side.

How does UK inheritance tax fit in?

The UK charges inheritance tax on the estate of someone domiciled or long-term resident here. According to GOV.UK, there is normally nothing to pay below the £325,000 threshold, or where everything above it goes to a spouse or charity. Above the threshold the standard rate is 40%.

US filings do not change the UK charge. The two run in parallel.

What does change is the timetable. Probate cannot sensibly finish while US liabilities remain open.

What if the surviving spouse filed jointly?

If the deceased and the surviving spouse file jointly, both must meet the non-residency test for the procedures to apply. A British spouse who was never American is usually not part of the return at all. An American surviving spouse is a different case, and needs their own compliance checked too.

The surviving spouse signs the joint return alongside the personal representative.

Our guide to streamlined filing for married couples covers joint submissions in detail.

What if the deceased had a UK pension?

Many treaty pension elections that should have been made on time were never made. The procedures allow retroactive relief for a failure to elect deferral on certain retirement plans where the treaty permits it. The estate makes the election with the submission, along with a signed statement explaining the failure.

That statement is again made under penalties of perjury, so keep it factual.

Pension information returns are where estates find the largest technical errors. Review them carefully before filing.

What if the IRS had already assessed penalties?

The procedures do not cancel penalties the IRS assessed before the submission. They protect the estate only from new penalties on the years covered. If a notice of penalties already arrived during the person's life, it stays, and needs its own response.

Look through the deceased's post for IRS letters before you start.

A reasonable cause request may still remove an old penalty, but it runs separately from streamlined filing.

Do the returns need a Social Security number?

Yes. The returns need the deceased's taxpayer identification number, and it must appear on the payment. If the person never had a Social Security number and was not eligible for one, the procedures allow an application for an individual taxpayer identification number with the submission.

Most American citizens had a number from birth or childhood, even if nobody remembers it.

Search old papers for it first. Applying afresh for a deceased person is slow.

How long does the whole process take?

Preparation usually takes longer than the IRS processing. Gathering six years of bank statements for someone who has died can take months, because each bank needs the death certificate and the grant of probate before it releases anything. Allow for that before promising beneficiaries a date.

Once the package is posted, the IRS processes it in the normal course.

If you also file Form 4810, the 18-month assessment window starts when the IRS receives that request.

What should the executor do before distributing?

Hold back enough to cover any US tax, interest and professional fees until the IRS processes the submission. Distributing first and discovering a US liability later leaves the executor chasing beneficiaries. That is a poor position, especially when beneficiaries live in different countries.

The streamlined filing package itself usually takes a few weeks to prepare once records are gathered.

The waiting is for the IRS, not for the paperwork.

Mistakes and penalties with streamlined filing for estates

The first mistake is assuming death ends US filing duties. The estate inherits them, and the representative must file them.

The second is filing late returns in the normal way, which leaves every penalty in play.

The third is distributing the whole estate before the IRS has processed the submission.

The fourth is signing Form 14653 without evidence of what the deceased knew. A non-wilful statement made carelessly is the weakest part of any streamlined filing.

How to use streamlined filing for a deceased relative

1. Confirm the deceased was a US citizen or green card holder.
2. Check the 330-day test in at least one of the three years.
3. File Form 56 to notify the IRS of your role.
4. Prepare three years of returns marked DECEASED and in red.
5. Prepare six years of FBARs through BSA E-Filing.
6. Sign Form 14653 for the estate with supporting evidence.
7. Post the package to Austin with payment of tax and interest.
8. File Form 4810 and keep a reserve until the IRS responds.

How US UK Tax Accountants helps

We act for executors in Britain who discover an American filing gap. That includes the residence analysis, three years of returns, six years of FBARs, the pension elections, and the certification that makes the submission work.

We also plan the timetable so the US position closes in step with probate. Our streamlined filing service handles estates as well as living filers.

If you are administering an estate and have found an unfiled American, talk to us before you distribute anything.

Last reviewed 29 October 2026. This article is general information and not personal tax advice. Figures apply to deaths in 2025 and 2026.