Innocent Spouse

What would you do if, just weeks after your spouse's sudden death, you found out he was keeping secrets? Carol Ross Joynt was a successful TV producer and award-winning journalist in Washington, D.C. Her husband, Howard, owned a legendary restaurant in Georgetown. They had a young son, a happy marriage – a seeming fairy-tale life. But Howard’s sudden death changed everything. Carol was shocked to discover that her husband had secrets – financial secrets – including a $3 million debt to the IRS that still had to be settled. Carol was responsible for repaying the debt, unless she could prove she knew nothing about Howard’s fraudulent dealings and convince the government she was an innocent spouse. With no time to grieve, Carol was forced to immediately learn to manage her family’s legal and financial responsibilities, run Howard’s restaurant, hold her own career together, and raise their son as a solo parent. As she picked up the pieces and coped with her sadness and anger, she learned to become self-sufficient. Poignant, eye-opening, and at its core uplifting, Innocent Spouse is ultimately an inspiring story of strength and newfound independence in the face of loss and betrayal.

Attorney Robert Schaller and the Schaller Law Firm offer IRS Innocent Spouse Tax Relief to tax professionals. This book is a scholarly treatise on the IRS program that relieves a requesting spouse (or former spouse) from joint and several tax liability. Innocent spouse relief is offered on equitable grounds or when the tax is attributable to a non-requesting spouse’s bad behavior – including fraud, income concealment, income misstatement, and unwarranted expense deductions or tax credits. This book offers a deep dive into the U.S. Tax Code, Treasury regulations, court opinions, the Internal Revenue Manual, and IRS Revenue Procedures that comprise the IRS’ Innocent Spouse Tax Relief program. This is a resource book for tax professionals. Congress authorized relief to the “innocent” spouse who would otherwise be inequitably harmed by the non-requesting spouse. The three types of relief from joint and several tax liability are analyzed with relevant citations to the U.S. Tax Code, Treasury regulations, court opinions, the Internal Revenue Manual, and IRS Revenue Procedures. A separate discussion is presented for Innocent Spouse Relief, Separation of Liability Relief, and Equitable Relief, including a line-by-line analysis of IRS Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief. An 8-page Table of Contents, a 19-page Table of Authorities, and a 9-page Index aides a tax professional’s scholarly understanding. The book also explores premature and untimely relief claims, appellate review of rejected claims, and refund claims after relief is granted. IRS Innocent Spouse Tax Relief also explores the IRS collection process with a discussion of IRS levies, tax liens, installment agreements, the offer in compromise program, and currently not collectible status. Finally, powers of attorney and third-party authorizations are examined, including a line-by-line analysis of IRS Form 2848, Power of Attorney and IRS Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization.

By law, married persons who file joint tax returns are each fully responsible for the accuracy of the tax return and for the full tax liability. This is true even though only one taxpayer may have earned the wages or income shown on the tax return. Under the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) Innocent Spouse Program, IRS can relieve taxpayers of tax debts on the basis of equity considerations, such as not knowing that their spouse failed to pay taxes due. Since passage of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (Restructuring Act) of 1998, IRS has received thousands of requests from taxpayers for innocent spouse relief. IRSs inability to provide timely responses to such requests has generated concerns among taxpayers, Congress, and other stakeholders. It took IRS about a year, on average, to completely process an innocent spouse case in fiscal year 2001.

Written by a team of tax specialists, J.K. Lasser’s Your Income Tax 2007 is the nation’s all-time top-selling tax guide. It’s filled with expert advice and guidance—including over 2,500 easy-to-follow tax tips and strategies—that will help you plan and file your 2006 tax return in the most efficient way possible.

Americas #1 bestselling tax guide offers a balance of thoroughness, organization, and usability. Written by a team of tax specialists, it features easy-to-follow, expert advice and guidance on planning and filing taxes.