Few financial events are worse than a big tax bill with penalties from the IRS. If you are a spouse and you were unaware of potential errors or underreporting on your tax return, you may be eligible for innocent spouse relief.

To qualify for innocent spouse relief, you must meet all three of the following conditions:

1. You and your spouse filed jointly, and your tax bill was understated solely because of one or more errors that your spouse made. These errors, or willfully improper entries, only apply to income and deductions that belong to your spouse. They include improper deductions and credits, incorrectly reporting basis in property such as securities and business inventory, under-reporting income, or omitting items.
2. You must establish that you didn’t know your spouse did this and had no reason to know when you signed your tax return.
3. Prove that considering the facts and circumstances surrounding your case, it wouldn’t be fair to hold you responsible for the resulting underpayment.

If your spouse is not transparent about finances with you, and you didn’t find out about what they did until long after the tax return was filed, you’re more likely to qualify for innocent spouse relief.

If the above scenario matches your personal circumstances, it might be time to get professional help. It is important that you put together a well-documented response when applying for innocent spouse relief. Contact this office to learn how we might be able to help resolve your tax issue.