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Australia doesn't have a death tax, but someone has to pay your bills after you die

Australia has not imposed death taxes for almost 40 years.

After then Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen abolished them in the late 1970s, the other states and Commonwealth quickly followed.

But what some Australians may not realise is that, when you die, your tax bills do not just disappear.

Ian Raspin, managing director of BNR Partners, specialises in dealing with deceased estates.

He said about 18 months ago one of the cases that he took on was for a family member of a man who died, and at the time of his death, had not lodged a tax return for 31 years.

"He was running two businesses in his name as a sole trader," Mr Raspin said.

"A family member now has responsibility to deal with it [the outstanding tax returns].

"We had to go back and reconstruct as many years as we could — going through bank statements and so on — and then had to go to the tax commissioner to deal with these issues."

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