Legal Question in Tax Law in Arizona

Re: Joint Income Tax Return Delinquency

It sounds like you may be eligible for innocent spouse relief. There are several ways to qualify for innocent spouse relief, and its a very technical area. You may be able to avoid liability without filing bankruptcy.

Re: Joint Income Tax Return Delinquency

You are liable for the 1995 taxes because you filed a joint return. However, you may be able to escape this liability in several ways. Whether or not you can may turn in large measure on whether the taxes were shown as due on the return at the time you filed it, or whether the tax was the result of an "adjustment" by the IRS later. If it was shown on the the original return, you would not qualify for "innocent spouse" relief except for the so-called "equitable" relief of IRC sec. 6015(f), which is very hard to get.

If you were literally forced to sign the return and did so against your will because of physical abuse and intimidation, you may be able to convince the IRS that the return is not really your return. But if you had a longstanding practice of filing jointly both before and after 1995, that probably won't work.

You asked about bankruptcy. Generally income taxes are dischargeable if they are more than three years old (measured from the due date of the return). Here, 1995 taxes are more than old enough.

Finally, there is a ten year statute of limitations on collection. If the return was filed in April 1996, you may be within two years of the expiration of the tax debt under the statute of limitations.

Each of these issues is far, far more complicated than these quick answers might imply, and all the facts need to be fully understood. There are articles on each of these subjects on my firm's website at www.bjhaynes.com (go to the articles section). Good luck.

First,