A Couple Of Scenarios

Most married couples file their tax returns as “Married Filing Joint” whether they prepare their tax return themselves or have it prepared by a professional. When the wife (for example) is an employee and has taxes taken from her paycheck, she may be due a refund at tax time. The husband is self-employed and neglects to pay quarterly self-employment taxes. The refund the wife was expecting disappears and is now used to cover the husband’s tax shortfall.  When a spouse has no idea the other spouse underpaid on their portion of the tax due and had no input in filing the tax return, this problem could be an innocent spouse relief claim. 

Another scenario is when a couple of blissful newlyweds file their first joint tax return and a nice refund is expected, but the new husband owes back child support and there goes that nice refund. This too could be an injured spouse case.

The Requirements Of Innocent Spouse Relief

Meet a few conditions per the IRS code, and you may qualify:

• A joint tax return had to have been filed and
• There was an understatement of tax that is attributed solely to your spouse and
• You were unaware that there was an understatement of tax at the time you signed the joint return and
• After assessing all the facts of the case, the IRS determines it would not be fair to hold you accountable for the understatement of the tax.