From the Weird-but-True Dept.: IRS Goes to Grave to Get It's Share:
The IRS wants to reach into a Boston banker's grave to collect $1.9 million it claims he owes. But the family of John J. Ryan, who lived in Framingham, says the estate never got the money that the Internal Revenue Service wants to tax, and claims the agency picked its number out of thin air. The IRS figured the amount based on a presumed $4 million medical malpractice award on a case that remains unresolved, a lawyer for Ryan's estate said. Ryan died of a pulmonary embolism on Sept. 29, 1999, nine days after he suffered a ruptured spleen in a fall at his Framingham home. Ryan's estate subsequently sued three doctors, claiming they failed to properly diagnose Ryan's condition before he died. Even though the malpractice case isn't expected to go to trial until next year, the IRS demanded Ryan's estate pay the $1.9 million in additional 2000 estate taxes, penalties and interest - presuming that Ryan's estate would receive $4 million from the case. Ryan's estate has asked the U.S. Tax Court to void the IRS demand.