M mother died in Illinois and only has cash in a bank account. She has no property or no bonds stocks, nothing else. I live in ohio. I will receive 25,000 dollars from her estate once all the bills are paid. her estate is about 120,000 dollars before all bills are paid. After bills she will have about 54,000 left over which will be dived between her two children , my sister and me. Is this money taxable by the irs or the state of ohio. Do I have to declare this money as income, if so how?

Federal Estate Tax
THE good news is it's unlikely that you'll owe estate taxes based on the facts that you have presented. This is because the Federal Estate Exemption allowance of $2 million in 2006-2008 will exempt any of your parents assets being subjected to Federal Estate Taxes as it does not exceed the exemption amount.

Ohio Estate Tax:
Furthermore, in Ohio State, for dates of death on or after January 1, 2002, an estate tax return (E.T. Form 2) must ONLY be filed for an estate that has a gross value of $338,333 or more regardless of whether a Federal estate tax return is filed. Hence, it would seem that you would be exempt from both filing or having any Ohio Estate Tax Liability.

In short, there would be no Federal or Ohio Estate tax liabilities in your case!

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