IRS question:
Married (August 1993) Lived, & Divorced (April 2009) in state of Louisiana; Jointly filed income tax through 2000. Husband lied to me and told me he filed income tax 2001-2005. Found out in 2006 that he lied. I begged him to file 2006-2009. He would not. And would divorce me if did without him. I am a teacher in Louisiana . HE is self employed with a cabinet shop in Louisiana. IRS slapped a IRS lien of $200,000+ on our property Jan 2009 and garnished my payroll check in May 2009 ((The property settlement in the divorce gives him the 6,000 square foot shop with machinery & tools and ½ acre and states that he accepts all responsibility for the IRS lien; and I have the 19 acres and a 32 x 90 mobile home.))
I went to a CPA and had the 2001-2008 tax returns handled. IRS looked at them and said ’great’, but the garnishment will stay on until he files AND pays his back taxes. IRS told me that since we were married during the years 2001-2008 that they would continue to garnish my check even though or IF I filed my taxes of 2001-2008. They said since he will not file his taxes that they could and would legally garnish my check or any income forever. My ex-husband told me he has gone to a tax attorney---but, today I found out that he went to Tax Masters (who does not believe in paying taxes). He gets to go on with his life (being the he works for cash) and I get to forever be bound by his tax debt.
I have a couple of ideas but I don’t know what to do.:
I had my CPA prepare my back taxes for 2001-2008, but IRS said they will still continue to garnish my check.
Would it help if I were to get my CPA to file my ex-husband’s taxes? I could use the boxes of papers that I took out of his shop last month.
Since I am concerned that they will take my mobile home (even though it has no kitchen cabinets or sink, no doors & molding, etc. in it---yeah, I was married to a cabinet maker!) ---Should I have it moved elsewhere?
Go to Attorney General’s office in Louisiana and solicit his help in this matter. His office called the house in Feb 2009 in reference to my ex-husband taking $22,000 from a client and not building his cabinets or returning his money to him. They have a judgment against him in the amount of $33,000.
Go to State Representative in Louisiana & in my area and solicit his help in this matter.
PLEASE HELP … I am 60 years Old, Single, and Scared
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Nothing you can do but haul his as* into court and have a judge order him to file.
Sorry to hear about your situation.
For the years you filed joint, you're stuck with owing whatever is owed unless you can qualify as innocent spouse, and that's pretty unlikely although you could give it a try. And the IRS doesn't have to honor anything in the divorce agreement about who is responsible for what - if something gets collected from you that the divorce agreement said he was responsible for, you'd have to sue him to reimburse you. Since the property was in his or in joint names when the debt was incurred, a lien on that is legit too.
Something doesn't sound right though about garnishing your pay for years when you filed separately, assuming you don't owe anything yourself for those years. I'd ask the IRS to explain exactly what the garnishment is for, then if it's for those years, talk to a tax attorney about that part. But it might be legit since it's a community property state.
'
You can't have someone file his taxes for him. The IRS are the only ones who could file for him without his signature.
If it's any consolation, sure right now it looks like he's just going on with his life, but if he doesn't straighten all this out, sometime in the not too far distant future he'll be sitting in prison.
Sorry this is happening to you. Good luck.
I am really confused because I can't figure out exactly what the problem is except that it has a grip on you. Who is the taxpayer with the lien, you, your ex or both of you? It would seem that you are the taxpayer somewhere here or IRS wouldn't have a levy on your salary.
IRS would have to get a court order to seize a personal residence and be able to show there was enough equity to make it worth while. The potential for doing that in your case looks to be somewhere south of zero.
You might have some luck with the Taxpayer Advocate nearest you.
http://www.irs.gov/advocate/article/0,,id=97402,00...
From your letter, it sounds like they cannot garnish your wages. If you filed a joint return for any year, however, they can.
If the wage levy is causing significant hardship, the advocate can help, or if you don't really owe the taxes, they can help.
If your ex forged your signature on joint returns, also they can help.
Do not have anyone file your ex's taxes. That is illegal. You would come out much better trying to talk to your state representative. However, I'm not sure anything can be done in this situation except to possibly bring a lawsuit against your ex. Talk to a lawyer, preferably tax attorney.
I'm really sorry to hear that. I don't think you're gonna find anyone on here from Norman Oklahoma, so you'll need to just look up local social services in your area. Are there any women's shelters, you may need to travel to a larger city. You can also turn to churches. Best of luck
Stop playing scared little girl and turn into a raging b**ch with a lawyer.
Clearly, your divorce lawyer is a moron -- this should have been a part of your settlement.
Hire a lawyer NOW and figure out how to make your ex-husbands life a living hell until he cleans up his own mess.
Take charge and take action.
You can't file your ex-husbands taxes, which would be illegal.
You can however file IRS form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief, which you can use to explain your situation that you didn't know what he was doing.
All the others are correct. One wrinkle is that Louisiana is a community property state and so you and your ex are linked more tightly than would otherwise be and you are, in general, liable for his debts. Get that lawyer asap.