Can we defer paying taxes after cashing co-owned savings bonds?

You need to talk to a CPA. Is she co-owner or beneficiary? Big difference. Does she have POA? Is he in a nursing home on Hospice. A Hospice facility? Or at his or your home? If in a nursing home on Medicaid there is no out of pocket for Hospice. It is funded by Medicare if he receives it. Hospice coming into the home also covered under Medicare if eligible. Hospice homes, then u pay for his room (same if he is private pay In a NH or AL). Medicare picks up everything else. I also would not transfer the funds to a checking account, I would pay the directly to the facility. But this is really a question for a CPA. The interest on bonds my husband had since before the 80s amounted to 50K. We paid 10k to the IRS. You can make a list of the bonds he has with no. of bond, date issued and maturity date and take the list to the bank. They can tell you what the interest rate was and how much they are worth at that time. Ours were mature and over 30 yrs old. At 30yrs you no longer get interest. So if cashing in, you cash the oldest first.

What tax Id was provided when the bonds were cashed? If your wife provided her tax Id, then you will need to get some pro help as JoAnn suggested. The irs will not absolve your wife of liability if she provided her own tax Id. The interest income will need to be included in fathers taxes if you do get resolved too, which if he’s on Medicaid is an entirely different problem.

Greetings J & G. My wife, only listed as the bonds’ co-owner and not POA (her older sister is POA), cashed the bonds (under her SSN) but we did send check to her POA sister, who deposited into their parent’s account. All this occurred 2017 ... her father’s illness, hospice and living his final days at his home, our cashing bonds and his passing. (He was 91.)

From what I know, the family decided on paying for a 24-hr care giver, which is why my wife was asked to cash bonds and send monies to her sister. (So, we didn’t pay any one / any company directly. They were paid from her parent’s account.)

BTW, I’ve been a Taxact kind of guy for several years and am not in contact with any CPA. Hoping it could be an easy answer ... but who am I kidding?!?! There is no “easy answer” when it comes to irs! 😞

Blessings to each of your loved ones and to each of you!

When we cashed ours in, we kept aside a percentage of the interest made for taxes. The rest we invested.