My husband of 38 years died in January. He was living in Texas and I live in Nevada. Our finances are quite separate and I had very little idea what he had. Now that the statements are rolling in, it looks like he had about 45K in income and paid no taxes.

He had the money to pay his taxes in his savings account. He died suddenly and I'm sure it didn't occur to him that I would need the money to pay his taxes so he POD the account to his cousin. She got the money as he wished but now I have no money to pay his taxes.

I think I will owe somewhere in the area of 15K. I make much less than he did and I was laid off my lousy $12/hr job when I couldn't wrap up his affairs in 3 days. Company policy. I think I am in a lot of trouble. What should I do?

I own my home and it's in the process of being remodeled. It's a construction zone so no way can I get a loan on it. It's going very slowly because my funds are limited.

I can only think of one thing to do. Can I call myself a professional gambler and write off gambling losses? How hard is that to do? I really don't gamble much and it's only my 'mad money'. But the win/loss statements I get from the casinos are pretty impressive. Would this work?

Any other ideas? I'm too old to just make 15K extra this year. My options are limited and the economy in Vegas is bad. I would be lucky to find part time work with no benefits for about $10 or so per hour.