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Our offices are temporarily closed, but our services are available online and we are ready to assist by phone, chat, or email. Please visit dor.wa.gov/contact-us.
Why are we contacting you?
We are currently reviewing estate tax returns approximately 17 months after receiving them. We are actively working to reduce this backlog and increase our response time, and have several improvement ideas to speed up our process. Some of those require your help, which is why we are reaching out to you. The better prepared and organized your estate tax return is, the quicker we will be able to process it.
Return process steps
When we receive your return, we will deposit any payments attached, and then scan the return as an electronic image into our system for processing.
We will send a letter confirming your filing or refund status. If any documentation is missing, we will include a list of those items. We review returns in the order received based on the original postmark date.
What do we need from you?
Please include all applicable documents listed on the estate tax filing checklist and assemble items in the order shown below, using separator sheets between each:
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Payment, if applicable.
- Original Washington State Estate and Transfer Tax Return signed by the executor.
- Include the first three pages of the form and the Washington return schedules.
- Addendum(s) signed by the executor, if applicable.
- Copy of the filed Federal Form 706, if applicable.
- Include the first four pages of the form and the 706 return schedules.
- Copy of Death Certificate.
- Copy of Letters of Administration/Testamentary, if applicable.
- Copy of Will, if applicable.
- Copy of Trust(s), if applicable.
- Copy of Disclaimer(s), Community Property Agreements, Separate Property Agreements, judicial binding agreements, or non-judicial binding agreements, if applicable.
- One set of all supporting documentation in the order of the completed return schedules (examples: Schedule A, B, C):
- Appraisals.
- Brokerage statements or valuation software reports.
- Financial or bank statements.
- Federal Form 712.
- Business valuations, especially for closely held or non-publicly traded businesses.
- Gift tax returns for the last four years.
- Any other document or calculation supporting the value reported on a schedule.
- A separate set of documentation if alternate valuation is elected.
Helpful Hints
- Send in the documents in the order listed. This helps to expedite our processes.
- Remove all staples from documents to expedite scanning.
- Separating documents:
- Do not use tabs to separate documents because the scanner cannot process them.
- Place a separator sheet between sections/documents, or notate the break in documents at the top of each sections/documents.
- Do not submit schedules that have nothing on them. Place a zero on the schedule’s line on the recapitulation (Page 3, Part 5), informing us that there is nothing to report.
Why do we require certain documentation?
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Washington return: Always include a complete Washington return with all schedules, even when filing a Federal Form 706. There are situations where the Washington schedules and the Federal schedules do not match, and the Washington schedules demonstrate what elections the estate wants to make in this state.
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Governing documents: All governing documents are required to detail why a return was completed a certain way or distributed a certain way. The governing documents include the Last Will, all trusts (created by the decedent, or where the decedent had a beneficial interest in), disclaimers, separate property agreements, community property agreements, and all non-judicial and judicial binding agreements (TEDRAs).
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Gift tax: The last four years of gift tax returns are required to document assets distributed prior to filing the estate tax return, and to validate the gift taxes shown on Schedule G.
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Asset values: Include documentation verifying asset values and how they were determined. Common types of supporting documentation required include real estate appraisals, business appraisals, brokerage statements, or bank statements. The documentation validates the asset values owned by the decedent as of their date of death.
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Alternate valuation: If the estate elects alternate valuation, then a separate set of documentation should be provided to verify the values of the assets owned by the decedent as of the valuation date (typically six months after the date of death).
Based on feedback received, we are working on creating an Excel version of this return, which should make filing easier. We are also working on updating most of our other Estate Tax forms, so be sure to visit us at dor.wa.gov/EstateTax.
We are here to help! If you have any questions, please send them to estates@dor.wa.gov, or call us at our new phone number 360-704-5906.
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