When my mama died, I had to take care of all of her business. She had numerous credit cards that needed to be dealt with. I was told that as long as I had death certificates to turn into every one of her creditors, that I wasn’t responsible for her bills. None of her bills were in anyone’s name except hers. The problem came when she put my name on her bank account. She could no longer see well, and she wanted me to take care of her bills. My name on her bank accounts created a big problem. Suddenly, I was being taxed for the money that was in her savings and checking account. They called it an inheritance tax. I couldn’t believe I had to pay an inheritance tax on money that was to be used to pay her bills and her final expenses. I had to call a lawyer that dealt with wills and estates. The estate lawyer that I talked to, asked me about mom’s estate. I explained she had no estate. All she had was the two bank accounts and a couple of small life insurance policies. There would not be any money left over once all of us paid for the funeral and her debit cards. I had already paid off those I could afford, and I had the other creditors settling. The estate lawyer offered to help me get out of paying the inheritance tax. The problem was that the estate lawyer’s fee was going to be more than the cost of the inheritance tax. I paid the inheritance tax and paid off what I could with what money it left.