Q:

Subject: tax guru question

 

Greetings Kerry,

I just have one question. First of all, I really enjoyed your site. Very informative. My questions is what is the penalty for filing your taxes as a single when in reality you are married. Even though I am married, I recently got seperated from my wife. I was planning to file as a single and so was she. Thanks for your help.

A:

You both are treading into dangerous territory if you are serious about filing as Single when you were legally married as  of 12/31/05.

If there are kids involved and you  meet several qualifying tests, you and/or she may possibly qualify to use the generous Head of Household status.  Your professional tax advisor can help you determine if you qualify.

If you don't qualify for HoH status, you need to either file a joint return or as Married Filing Separate, which does have several penalties built into it.  To file as Single is technically filing a fraudulent tax return, which then gives IRS a lot of power over you, including the assessment of penalties and the removal of the statute of limitations.  With a normal honest tax return, IRS has three years to come after you.   With a fraudulent tax return, they have forever to come after you.

Give those points some deep consideration before sending in a 1040 claiming a bogus filing status.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Thank you very much for your help.

 

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 4/06/2006 01:18:00 PM Send this post: