Who Gets a Deceased Person’s Tax Refund in California?

A refund owed to someone who has died does not vanish and it does not automatically belong to whoever opens the mail. It is an asset of the estate, and who may claim it depends on who is asking and how the rest of the estate is being handled.

This is a narrower question than who files the final return. Filing and collecting are two different steps, and people routinely complete the first and then stall on the second.

The short answer

The refund belongs to the decedent’s estate. It passes to whoever is entitled to the decedent’s personal property, which means a surviving spouse in many cases, the beneficiaries under a will or trust, or the heirs under intestate succession if there was no plan. What changes is the paperwork required to get the check released.

The four common situations

Surviving spouse who filed a joint return

Generally the simplest case. A surviving spouse filing a joint return with the decedent can usually claim the refund without a separate claim form. The return itself carries the necessary information.

A court-appointed personal representative

If probate is open and letters have issued, the personal representative claims the refund in that capacity and attaches the court documentation showing the appointment. The refund then flows into the estate and is distributed with everything else.

Nobody was appointed, and nobody will be

This is the situation most people are actually in, because the estate is small and probate was never opened. For federal purposes this is what IRS Form 1310, the statement of a person claiming a refund due a deceased taxpayer, exists to handle. It lets a person who is entitled to the refund claim it without letters of administration.

On the California side, the Franchise Tax Board has its own documentation requirements for a refund claimed on behalf of a decedent. Check the FTB’s current decedent guidance rather than assuming the federal form alone satisfies the state, because the two agencies do not run identical processes.

Using California’s small estate procedure

A tax refund is personal property. If the estate qualifies under California’s small estate collection procedure, the refund can be collected by affidavit under Prob. Code § 13100 without probate. The threshold is $208,850 for estates of decedents dying on or after April 1, 2025 under AB 2016, with a separate and much higher figure for real property. Note the date qualifier, because that is where nearly everyone goes wrong: the older figures of $184,500 and $166,250 were correct for earlier date-of-death brackets and are still repeated constantly as if current. The bracket that applies is the one in effect on the date of death, not the date you are filing.

There is also a waiting period before the affidavit may be used. Confirm it before you send anything to the FTB or the IRS.

Where people get stuck

The refund check arrives payable to the decedent and the bank will not cash it. That is the normal ending to this story, and the fix is upstream: establish authority to claim it before the check issues, not after.

Another common trap is treating the refund as too small to bother with while it is in fact the last unresolved asset holding an estate open. It is worth closing.

If there is a dispute

Where more than one person claims entitlement, or where the decedent’s plan is unclear, the refund is not really the issue. The underlying question of who inherits is. That is a different conversation and usually a worthwhile one.

General information about California law, not legal or tax advice. Figures as of July 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can claim a deceased person’s federal refund?

A surviving spouse who filed a joint return generally claims it on that return with no extra form. A court-appointed personal representative claims it and attaches the letters. Anyone else files IRS Form 1310 with the return. The form is short and the IRS is strict about who signs it, so the answer usually turns on whether anyone has been appointed.

What if nobody was appointed and nobody is going to be?

Form 1310 handles that case. A person who paid the funeral costs or is otherwise entitled to the refund under state law can check the box for a claimant other than a spouse or appointed representative, state that no representative has been or will be appointed, and sign. You’ll need to be able to say why you’re the right person, and for a small refund the IRS rarely presses further.

Does California require something different for the state refund?

Yes. The Franchise Tax Board uses its own form, FTB 1310, rather than accepting the federal one. The categories are similar and the filing is separate, so a family that only files the IRS form often waits on a state refund that never comes because nobody sent the state its version.

Can the small estate affidavit collect a refund?

Often, yes. A tax refund is personal property, so if the total of the decedent’s probate assets is at or under $208,850, a small estate affidavit under Prob. Code §§ 13100 to 13101 can be used to collect it after a 40-day wait. Some agencies process this more readily than others, and pairing the affidavit with the appropriate 1310 is usually what gets it moving.

Where do people get stuck?

Two places. The refund check arrives made out to the decedent and no bank will deposit it, which sends the family back to get an estate account or a certified copy of something. And the return itself hasn’t been filed, so there’s no refund to claim yet: someone has to prepare a final Form 1040 for the year of death, and for many estates a Form 1041 for income earned afterward.

What if the family disagrees about who gets it?

Then it isn’t really a tax question. A refund is an estate asset like any other and it passes under the will, or under intestacy if there isn’t one. Where there’s a genuine dispute, the clean answer is usually to open a proceeding so a representative is appointed and the money is distributed under an order rather than by whoever cashed the check first.