Innocent Spouse

What Is Innocent Spouse Relief?

Innocent Spouse Relief is sometimes tough to prove however can be of great help to you if you owe the IRS money because of your ex partner.

Do you have any liability as the spouse of someone who has a tax debt? Exactly what if you are going through a divorce and technically the debt is your spouse's.

Here's the response to these questions. If, you filed joint returns with your partner during your marital relationship and you both signed the returns you filed every year, you both share similarly in the tax responsibility that was accumulated during the marriage. It is a hard area to obtain remedy for the IRS and just one circumstances where the IRS feels this may be a legitimate defense. This defense is called Innocent Spouse.

Simply understand that it is hard to get this approved and there are a number of criteria you will have to satisfy.

Here they are:

1. You have filed a joint return.
2. The Tax Debt has to be DIRECTLY connected to just your spouse.
3. You need to show you had no idea what your spouse was doing with the return once you signed it
4. This has to be claimed within two years of the IRS acting versus you.Your best opportunity is to be legitimately separated or separated for at least a year prior to making your Innocent Spouse Claim.

And once again there are three types of Innocent Spouse Claims. You will have to choose which one is optimal for your claim.

Traditional Innocent Spouse: You are saying that you did not know your spouse was not paying your taxes. Ignorance!

Separate Liability Election: During your marriage you had the appropriate reductions taken out of your paychecks. Although you may have filed jointly with your spouse, you will have to re-file independently and show the following:

That you did submit a joint return

The return in question did contain an underestimated tax

You have actually been separated from your spouse for a minimum of 12 months and has actually been under two years given that the IRS did something about it against you.

Equitable Relief: This is where you absolutely had no concept what was going on. You didn't assist with financial resources at all. You didn't have a hand in running the family business. You simply signed a return and assumed everything was being looked after.

The qualifications for Innocent Spouse Relief are:

• You must have filed a joint return
• You are unable to acquire relief under Classic Spouse Relief or Separate Liability
• No greater than two years have actually passed considering that the IRS did something about it against you
• You need to show that no deceitful asset transfer has actually taken place in between you and your spouse
• You have to prove that you or your spouse hasn't moved property to avoid paying the taxes due
• You need to prove that it is unjust to hold you accountable for your spouse's tax costs