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Innocent Spouse Relief
"I knew he was a crook when I married him." Come again? And you still married him? That's what I said in my head as it took every muscle in my face to keep my forehead from scowling. But instead, I said, "What do you mean?" "We always had good money and nice things, but we never paid taxes. I always owed when I was single. But when we got married, I stopped working and we never owed." Let me take a moment to rewind and get you up to speed. This taxpayer, let's call her Mrs. Bonnie for the purposes of this story, reached out because she needed to file last year's tax return. She was recently widowed, and her husband typically handled the tax filing. So, she was already feeling overwhelmed and lost when it happened. She went to the mailbox and pulled out mail from the IRS. It was a CP3219A , notifying her that credits claimed on a previous tax return were being disallowed by the IRS. Not only did she owe taxes, but she also owed accuracy related penalties. She only had 90 days to respond if she disagreed and didn't know what to do. When she reached out to me, she inquired about whether I could review previous year returns. Mrs. Bonnie wanted to make sure that they were "done right". This isn't a strange request. I told her that I would review the prior year to have a baseline and if I saw anything fishy, I'd bring it to her attention and perhaps look at another year. I didn't even make it to the signatures before the fishiness leaped off the page. I set up a meeting with her via Zoom to review my findings. As I begin to ask about some of the credits claimed and her husband's business her answers did not match what was on the return. That's when she let me know that she knew her husband, Mr. Clyde, was a crook when she married him. Mrs. Bonnie didn't know much about taxes, but she did a bit of research. She read about something called Innocent Spouse Relief and thought she may be eligible. Let's look at what Innocent Spouse Relief is and why Mrs. Bonnie was not eligible, but your client may be.
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CURRENT EDITION
Leaving the United States, Part III: Dual Citizenship
In Part I of this three-part series, we discussed the implications and taxes for American expatriates. In Part II we turned our attention to renouncing citizenship. Here in Part III, we will consider the halfway point of dual citizenship. And as you would expect, taxes are a serious consideration.
Reflecting On Rothing
I have been dissatisfied with most of the articles that I have read about what I call Rothing, i.e. foregoing a deduction for retirement savings with the prospect of tax-free distributions in the future or taking the tax hit on a deferred account to convert it to a tax-free account. The articles generally have a pro-Roth bias. Suze Orman, for example, swears by Roths. They also tend to not have numbers in them. What I am going to do here is to reflect on the idea of Rothing and discuss what I see as some key numbers. I’m not going to dive deep into technical issues.
Considering a Historic Building for Your Business? These Tax Credits are Good News
Historic buildings make a beautiful location for doing business. Unfortunately, many of them may seem out of the price range of small business owners. But, that’s not necessarily the case. The state and federal governments have an interest in preserving these properties, and they are willing to give you tax credits for buying and restoring a historic building. The credits reimburse a large proportion of your restoration costs. This really is a great incentive to go for a building that will give your company a unique and professional feel.
SIMPLIFIED TAX STRATEGIES &
PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION
Think Outside the Tax Box provides tax reduction strategies along with practical
implementation advice in order to reduce your clients’ federal tax bill with ease.
