What is innocent spouse relief? What is injured spouse relief? What’s the actual difference between the two?
These are common questions that we get in our tax resolution CPE classes. Watch the following high level overview of innocent and injured spouse to learn the difference and apply them to help your clients.
Note: This was recorded in November 2015 based on Internal Revenue Code and IRS policies in place at the time. Practitioners should seek out the latest changes to the code and IRS procedures in effect today. For the most up to date version of this class, enroll in our tax resolution specialist training program and become a Certified Taxpayer Representative™.
Unedited Transcript
Note: This is a raw, unedited transcript of the recording that was produced with an automated transcription tool, not a human transcriptionist. It’s provided merely for reference and to help you find specific sections of the video you might want to jump to.
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Our course objectives today are to define the difference between innocent and injured spouse relief. This is a very commonly, very commonly messed up thing, even amongst practitioners understanding the difference between between the two.
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You know, for practitioners, it can be difficult. We’re also going to look at the injured spouse procedures. We’ll look at various innocent spouse provisions and rules, including some things that you don’t commonly hear about. We’ll go in-depth on Form 88 57. And then finally, we’ll discuss appeals procedures for innocent spouse relief. So what is the difference between innocent and injured spouse relief?
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So like I said earlier, this very commonly confused, so injured spouse, this is when one spouse is, quote unquote, injured by federal offsets of the other spouse’s sole liability. Remember, if they’re filing married, filing jointly on their 10 40, then they are jointly liable for jointly and separately liable for the tax obligation. However, there are cases where one spouse has a debt that can be satisfied through the federal offset program.
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The most common situations where this occurs are unpaid child support debts to various federal or state agencies and separate tax liabilities.
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For example, if one spouse has a tax liability that was incurred prior to the marriage or if a one spouse owns a business and there was an employment tax situation that generated a trust fund, recovery penalty trust fund, the recovery penalties are only … Continue reading