Form 1310

Form 1310 is the statement the IRS requires before it will pay a refund belonging to a deceased taxpayer to someone other than the taxpayer. The form's own instruction is short: "Use Form 1310 to claim a refund on behalf of a deceased taxpayer," and "You must file Form 1310 if the description in line A, line B, or line C on the form above applies to you." It exists because a refund is the decedent's property, and the IRS needs to know whether the person asking for it is a surviving spouse, a representative appointed by a court, or a family member with no court appointment who is undertaking to distribute the money under the state's laws. The final income tax return itself is a different document; Form 1310 attaches to it, or follows it, when a refund is due.

The form is organized around who you are to the decedent, and the first thing to check is whether you need it at all. A surviving spouse filing a joint return with the decedent, whether original or amended, does not: the refund is payable to the spouse as a joint filer. Nor does a personal representative who has been appointed or certified by a court and who attaches a copy of the court certificate to the decedent's original Form 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR or 1040-SS. The form gives the example of a representative appointed on April 3 who files the return of a taxpayer who died on January 4: "You do not need to file Form 1310 to claim the refund on Mr. Green's tax return. However, you must attach to his return a copy of the court certificate showing your appointment." Publication 559 states the same two exceptions and adds the practical corollary: if you are the personal representative and the return is not a joint return, "file the return and attach a copy of the certificate that shows your appointment by the court." A power of attorney or a copy of the will is not acceptable evidence of appointment.

Everyone else falls into one of three boxes. Line A is narrow: a surviving spouse who has already received a refund check made out to both names and wants it reissued in one. The form says to return the joint-name check marked "VOID" with the form and a written request to the local IRS office or the service center where the return was filed, and "A new check will be issued in your name and mailed to you." Line B is a court-appointed or certified personal representative claiming a refund on Form 1040-X or Form 843, the two claim-for-refund forms, rather than on the original return. The December 2025 revision changed one thing here, flagged under "What's New": the representative "must attach your court certificate to the Form 1310, even if you have already filed that certificate with the IRS." Line C is everyone who is neither, typically a child or sibling of someone who died without a will and without an estate proceeding, claiming the refund "for the decedent's estate."

Part II exists for line C alone, and its three questions are the IRS's substitute for a court's judgment. Did the decedent leave a will? Has a court appointed a personal representative, and if not, will one be appointed? And will you, as the person claiming the refund, "pay out the refund according to the laws of the state where the decedent was a legal resident?" The answers route the claim. If a representative has been or will be appointed, the form says that person "must file for the refund," not the line-C claimant. If the claimant will not undertake to distribute the refund under state law, "a refund cannot be made until you submit a court certificate showing your appointment as personal representative or other evidence that you are entitled under state law to receive the refund." A line-C claimant must also have proof of death, either the death certificate or the formal notification from a government office such as the Department of Defense, but the form is explicit that it is kept, not sent: "Do not attach the death certificate or other proof of death to Form 1310. Instead, keep it for your records and provide it if requested."

Filing mechanics follow the box. For lines B and C the form is attached to the return or claim it relates to, and "Form 1310 can be filed electronically when it is attached to a Form 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR, or 1040-SS being filed electronically." Filed on its own, it goes to the service center where the original return was filed, or, if that return was e-filed, to the center designated for the claimant's address. Where a joint return is being filed for two spouses who have both died and the form is required, a separate Form 1310 is completed for each spouse and both are attached. Part III, the signature, declares under penalties of perjury that the claimant has examined the claim, and every filer completes it. One further use appears in Publication 559: a representative who lacks the information to file a timely refund claim can preserve the claim period by filing Form 1040-X with Form 1310 attached and a statement that an amended claim will follow.

1. Work out whether the form is needed at all. A surviving spouse filing jointly, or a court-appointed representative filing the original return with the court certificate attached, does not file it. Everyone else claiming the refund does.

2. Pick the Part I box. Line A for a joint-name refund check to be reissued to the surviving spouse; line B for a court-appointed or certified personal representative claiming on Form 1040-X or Form 843, with the court certificate attached; line C for anyone else claiming for the estate.

3. Line C only: answer Part II. Three questions cover the will, any court appointment, and the undertaking to pay the refund out under state law. Keep the death certificate or other proof of death available, but do not attach it.

4. Sign Part III and file. Attach the form to the return or claim it relates to, e-filing it with the return where the software supports it, or mail it separately to the service center that handled the original return. For line A, send the voided joint-name check with the form and a written request instead.

Take an example. Miguel's mother died in March, before filing her return for the prior year. She had $4,200 of tax withheld from her pension and Social Security during that year, and her final return shows a tax of $2,750, so the return claims a refund of $1,450. She left no will, and her children see no reason to open a probate proceeding for a small estate. Miguel, the oldest, prepares her Form 1040, checks box C on Form 1310, answers "No" to the questions about a will and a court appointment, answers "Yes" to the undertaking to distribute the refund under the laws of her home state, signs Part III, and files the form with the return. The $1,450 comes to him, and he divides it among the siblings as state law directs. Had his mother left a will naming an executor who then obtained a court appointment, that executor would instead attach the court certificate to the original return and file no Form 1310 at all.

Pros

• It gives a family member with no court appointment a route to a decedent's refund without opening an estate proceeding, by undertaking to distribute it under state law.
• The two exceptions spare the commonest cases, a surviving spouse filing jointly and a court-appointed representative filing the original return, from any extra form.
• It can be e-filed with the decedent's return, which avoids the paper route.
• The proof-of-death rule is light: the death certificate is kept, not mailed.

Cons

• A claimant who will not undertake to distribute the refund under state law gets nothing until a court certificate or other evidence of entitlement is produced.
• Once a personal representative has been or will be appointed, only that person may claim, even if a family member has already done the work of preparing the return.
• Since the December 2025 revision a line-B representative must attach the court certificate to every Form 1310, even one already on file with the IRS.
• A joint-name refund check cannot simply be deposited by the survivor; it has to be voided and returned with the form for reissue.