Ir you have filed jointly with your spouse and your spouse owes the RIS money, you will receive notices too. This often happens when your spouse owns his own business and files a schedule C. But sometimes if your spouse prepares the tax return, you may not know why you owe taxes or what the IRS bases their claim on.

 You may be able to avoid this liability entirely under the IRS’s Innocent Spouse Relief rules.  Under federal law if an income tax return is signed by both husband and wife, both spouses are 100% responsible for the taxes owed.  However, the law permits special consideration where a spouse cannot be held responsible for the underreporting of income or the understatement of tax that are attributable to the other spouse.

If you meet the following criteria you may be able to apply for innocent spouse relief:  Your spouse didn’t report all their income; and you were not aware of it and no reason to know about it when you signed the tax return; and it would be unfair to hold you liable for the taxes owed due to your spouse’s error. If you feel you were deceived by your spouse or tricked into signing a return you thought was correct this will help your case too.  There are many other ways you may be eligible for relief under the IRS’s innocent spouse rules and we can help sort this out and determine the proper path for resolution.

If you are in this situation, call us for a free consultation to determine if you qualify for innocent spouse relief.