Carmel lawyer Carla Marin has consented to court judgments totaling nearly $4 million for unpaid federal and state taxes, as well as penalties and interest, on her late mother”™s estate.
If Marin and the estate pay $3.3 million within 90 days they can save $661,432, according to a settlement approved June 2 by U.S. District Court Judge Vincent L. Briccetti.
The discounted tax bill includes $2.75 million payable to the U.S. and $550,000 to New York State. The deal also requires the estate to become current on federal and state tax returns for 2010 to 2019.
Marin”™s mother, Ana Beatriz Marin, died in 2007 and left an estate valued at $7.4 million, according to court records. Most of the assets consisted of real estate in Putnam and Dutchess counties in New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Carla Marin served as the estate”™s co-executor with her brother, Philip, for several years and then as sole executor.
The Internal Revenue Service assessed $1.8 million in estate taxes in 2008 and later revised the obligation to $2.1 million.
The estate elected to pay interest only for five years and then make 10 annual payments.
After 2012, the fifth year, all payments stopped, according to court records, and since 2010, no tax returns were filed, even as the estate earned more than $2.2 million from rentals and investments.
The feds declared the estate in default and demanded immediate payment of the entire assessment in 2013.
In 2018, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman sued to liquidate the estate to pay the tax bill.
Briccetti ruled in January that Marin had failed to establish grounds to dismiss the government”™s case. He also found sufficient evidence of her depriving the estate of significant rental income by engaging in “self-dealing of estate assets for her own personal benefit.”
She had received more than $642,000 in cash from the estate, according to the government, and lived in one of the estate properties and used another for her law office.
Samuel Dolinger, an assistant U.S. attorney, represented the federal government. Jeffrey K. Cymbler represented New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Manhattan attorneys Stephen A. Josey and Megan L. Brackney represented Marin and the estate.
