Remedy to Transfer Poperty title from the deceased to children w/extra judicial settlement but unpaid estate tax

Gud day Atty! I'm Lanie youngest children of 3 and aged 34. My Father died last Dec. 1998 and 3 of our properties are still under his name up to now. My mother has already filed an extra judicial settlement and such were published in news paper a month after his death. He is still single as stated in the 2 titles(A &B) while the other one (C) is already under his married name. Title A has been sold by my father to my uncle a year before he died. Title B has been sold to someone, last 2005, who my brother owe's hundreds of thousands. While title C is supposed to be transferred under my sisters name.
Incidentally, may mother was not able to continue the process of transfering it to our name. Real property tax has been paid already but the estate tax went up due to penalties and it has reached 268K as estimated by the BIR which we cannot produce. My siblings and I are just mere clerks who earns just enough for a living. May I know Atty if there are other ways we can transfer the title to the supposedly new owners?

Hope you could help me on this matter atty. I really want to put everything in order only that i dont how. I'm quite confused and devasted everytime i remember this problem.

Thank you and have a blessed day.

it is too bad you did not take advantage of the last tax amnesty back in 2007. the bir waived penalties.

in the meantime, your recourse is to request the district collector of bir to either allow you to pay in installments or to reduce the penalties.

on the other hand, title a is your uncle's problem. if it was sold to him, then it was his responsibility and risk to transfer it. the same applies to title b.

these properties should not have been included in your father's estate because he was no longer the owner when he died. weren't any deeds of sale executed for these transfers?

Thank you for your reply Atty. My Father and my Uncle did not sign a Deed of Sale. So what my Unlce did was, they made a document (signed by my mom, my siblings and I, notarized) certifying that we are ackonowledging the sale between them and that we are waiving our rights to the property.
All 3 properties were included in the extra judicial atty. Is it possible or even advisable for us to file another extra judicial which will/can ammend the previous one?

to my mind, that will lead to double taxation. the uncle is not an heir so the property will divest to you (estate tax) and you can only sell to your uncle which is another taxable transaction (cap gains tax).

nevertheless, if the bir will allow that and just charge estate taxes then good for you. i recommend you negotiate with the buyers and the bir on how to share and pay for the taxes so they can be validly transferred.

i don't believe it should be your sole obligation to worry about this. the new owners have more of an interest and responsibility to get this done. let them pay for it.

okay Atty! Thank you so much for your advices. Somehow i felt relieved knowing they too have an obligation on this matter. I'll keep you posted.

thanks again and God bless!

Lanie.. there was a BIR circular No. 9-2010 which wss dated 13 Sept 2010 and was effected up to 29 Oct 2010 on Abatement of Surcharges and Penalties on estate tax, donor's tax, etc. It is sad to say, we have the same problem, and was too late also for me to avail such abatement BIR had...Hope it would be re-opened or be extended...

how sad for us. does bir make public announcements? how and where did you find out that they had such announcement so i could also closely look into their future posts. thanks for that info. i really hope we'll both be able to get through all this. Nakaka stress.

When I inquired how I can pay the estate tax of my father who passed away this June, but unfortunately my mother died in 1997, and the portion of the conjugal property wasn't liquidated to us by my father, thus resulting in a big estate tax to pay... The person I talked to showed me the Circular 9-2010 and told me to avail of the amnesty, but it is sad to say Lanie, that due to financial restraint I wasn't able to pay... I hope P-noy will extend it...the circular apparently was termed as "R.I.P. Project". Search it on the internet and you can reach the whole circular. I did!

well, same here ladie. we were not able to pay this tax due to financial constraints. i was able to search for that announcement of BIR a while ago via their website. thanks!