|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Get a New Tax Fable Every Week
| Summary: Examples of when a wife (husband) must pay the Internal Revenue Service even though she didn't sign the joint income tax return. Four steps to avoid liability |
||
"At times during our marriage, my comments caused Alvin to go into a rage." This is apparently how Evelyn Snyder explained her situation. "When I refused to drop the divorce, he threatened to leave me penniless. Then late one right he snuck into my home, set off the fire and burglar alarms and turned up the furnace. Completely terrified, after that I had friends stay with me at night." She distrusted his Atlantic City friends who "carried guns and had bodyguards."
After more than 30 years of marriage, she filed for divorce. Her soon-to-be ex., Alvin Snyder, filed a joint tax return without her signature, with a note explaining his wife didn't sign because of marital difficulties.
After the Internal Revenue Service found return errors, it billed both husband and wife. It said this was a joint return even without her signature. "She refused to sign because she was trying to improve her bargaining position in property settlement negotiations, not because she was frightened." Evelyn is liable with Alvin, the agency added, because she intended to sign.
The judge disagreed. Circumstances showed she didn't intend a joint return.
* * * * * *
Issues like this come up after the wife (husband) has signed the joint return in prior years. The judge looks at the facts to see if she intended another joint return.
IRS employee Robert Ward told his recently divorced wife they would save $1000 filing a joint return.
Bonnie Broome asked if he would buy her a new washer and dryer.
He refused and filed a joint return without her signature, and she filed as married filing separately.
The IRS rejected the joint tax advantage, and the judge agreed. Obviously Broome didn't intend a joint return; she filed separately.
* * * * * *
After three years of marriage, Vincent and Audrey Riportella of New York separated, and then she became interested in her tax status. She reluctantly signed an extension request for a joint return and notified him this didn't mean she would sign the joint return.
When he presented the return for her signature, she asked: "What will you do for me if I sign?"
He refused to give her anything; she refused to sign. He filed without her signature, using joint return rates.
The judge said Audrey's attempt to "sell" her signature and her willingness to sign the extension support Vincent's position.
So he got low joint-return rates, and she became liable with her husband for unpaid taxes and penalties.
Planning Tip: If a wife (husband) doesn't want to file jointly, she should do one or more of the following:
- Inform husband's return preparer.
- Notify the IRS of her refusal.
- Don't give tax data to her husband.
- File separately.
(more at Returns)
|
Your friends may not have access to this column though it appears in newspapers weekly. They More articles: Copyright © 1987-2003 A.J. Cook All Rights Reserved |
|
Released 5-27-02