Form 8857 covers compensation for innocent spouses, separation of responsibility and. To request help for injured spouses, file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Assignment. You can file it along with your tax return by mail or electronically. You can also mail it separately when you receive notice that your refund was applied to an outstanding debt.
To apply for help, file Form 8857, Request for Help for Innocent Spouses. We will review your application and contact your spouse or former spouse to ask if they would like to participate in the process. Help for innocent spouses represents a possible interruption of these collection activities for one of the parties to a joint tax debt. By seeking innocent spouse compensation, you can be exempt from the responsibility of paying taxes, interest and penalties due if your spouse did something wrong on their tax return.
You must apply for the separation of liability exemption within 2 years after receiving a notification from the IRS about an audit or taxes due due to an error in your return. Taxpayers file Form 8857 to request an exemption from tax liability, plus related penalties and interest, when they believe that only their spouse or former spouse should be held responsible for all or part of the tax. You may be eligible What to do if you get a notice about when to apply for help How to apply for help after you apply for help. Help for injured spouses can help you recover your portion of the federal tax refund that was reduced to pay your spouse's debts.
Separation of responsibilities can exempt you from having to pay your spouse the underestimated tax portion of a joint tax return if you are no longer married or living together. Both the innocent spouse relief and the separation of responsibility relief apply to additional tax settlements, such as those that result from an audit or a query about lack of information (CP2000) after filing the return. The general reason why most people don't qualify is that the acceptance of an innocent spouse's request is based on facts, but it's subjective. For example, if the spouse received a benefit from the tax return item (such as unreported income on the return), the chances of obtaining the relief decrease.
Even a divorce and a court order for one spouse to pay the outstanding tax bill will not be enough to prevent the IRS from suing both taxpayers for back taxes. You must apply for help for innocent spouses within 2 years after receiving a notification from the IRS about an audit or taxes due due to an error in your return. If you are seeking compensation for an innocent spouse, use IRS Form 8857 to ask the IRS to exempt you from all or part of the tax debt that originated when you file a joint return with your current or former spouse. You may be eligible What to do if you receive a notification Additional types of help for innocent spousesKnowledge of errors Exception for victims of domestic abuse When to seek help How to request help after requesting help Appeal a decision.
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