Tax return for separated/divorced persons Annual income tax report
The IRS requires married couples to submit a joint annual report. For this reason, all tax debts and tax refunds belong to both spouses during the time they were married. Therefore, the guiding principle that when approaching the issue of submitting an annual report, one must refer to the family situation of today and in addition to the family situation of the taxpayer in that tax year for which you want to submit an annual report or a report for a tax refund.
How can you deal with the issue of divorced or separated before the income tax?
Divorce issue – in a situation where the couple is divorced today and want to submit an annual report / tax return for the period in which they were married, you must proceed as follows – first, the report must include an income report for both spouses. After the report is approved, in order to withdraw the money from the income tax, the couple must sign form 4442 before an assessor according to their place of residence. In their statement, they authorize the assessor to transfer the tax refunds from the period in which they were married, to the account of one of the spouses. In principle, you can sign the confirmation in front of a notary.
Separated issue – Separated spouses are spouses who have separated and have been running a separate household for several years. In such a case, the income tax allows the separation to be settled by the tax authorities as well. Therefore, both separated spouses must sign the 4440 Declaration of Separation form and will be required to add evidence such as a judgment, an agreement from a lawyer and even rental agreements proving separate household management. After that, they will be allowed to separate their income tax files and submit the reports for the years in which they were separated.
The issue of opening a file after the divorce – divorced spouses who want to submit a tax refund report for the period after the divorce, may submit a separate report. The couple’s existing file will continue with the main taxpayer, and the other spouse will be required to open a separate file after the divorce. In the event that the divorced spouses wish to submit a tax return for the period before the divorce, they may be required to open another file for the other spouse for the period before the divorce. In that case, they will be required to sign form 4442 already at the stage of opening the second case and not at the stage when the money is required to be released.
The issue of submitting a report with details of one spouse – a report submitted without the other spouse’s income may be disqualified as a casual report.
