Stephen J. Dunn, a specialist in tax and estate planning issues at Demorest Law Firm, PLLC, recently wrote an article entitled “The Troublesome Joint Tax Return”. The article was published in the March/April 2009 issue of the EA Journal. This Journal is published by the National Association of Enrolled Agents, an organization representing professionals licensed to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. In the article Mr. Dunn discusses important factors in deciding whether one should file taxes jointly with their spouse.
Mr. Dunn explains why a tax preparer should not allow spouses to sign a joint income tax return if there is substantial unpaid tax liability on the return with respect to only one of the spouses. Nor should a preparer allow the spouses to sign a joint income tax return if there are disallowable deductions or unreported income attributable to one of the spouses.
If the spouses have already filed a joint income tax return with substantial unpaid tax liability attributable to only one of the spouses, the prepared should consider filing a Form 8857 seeking relief under IRC Sec. 6015(f) for the innocent spouse. The Form 8857 may also assert IRC Sec. 6015(b) as an alternative for innocent spouse relief. This action could accomplish a great result for the innocent spouse.
The full article is now available for download in PDF format by clicking the link below.
This article was written by Stephen J. Dunn, Of Counsel to Demorest Law Firm. Click here to view his professional resume.
One Comment on “The Troublesome Joint Tax Return”
Comments are closed.