Legal Question in Tax Law in Illinois

Re: Marriage tax law

If you file a joint income tax return with your "deadbeat" spouse, you would become liable for any joint tax liability, and what may otherwise be your tax refund would be kept to satisfy liabilities of your spouse that may be paid with tax refunds.

The better answer is to file married filing separately. That way, your tax refund, if any, will not be kept for your spouse's liabilities. You may, however, be in a higher tax bracket compared to a single taxpayer.

If you later determine that there is some tax savings from filing an amended joint return, you have three years to do so and claim additional refunds (which would be subject to application of either spouse's back taxes or other liabilities that may be paid with tax refunds.) Having said that, I would only file an amended joint return if you are virtually certain of all of your spouse's tax liabilities.

Our comments are based on treating your question as a hypothetical. Accordingly, our comments could be substantially and materially different were we advised of all of the relevant facts and circumstances. Our comments are by necessity general in nature, and should not be relied upon in taking or forgoing action in your circumstances without retaining an attorney. In order to fully explore your legal matter, you should meet with us or another attorney and bring to any such meeting all relevant documents and correspondence, and any other relevant facts.

We are not hired to be your attorney, and no attorney-client relationship exists between us, unless and until you enter into a written retainer agreement with us, tender the agreed amount for a retainer and it is accepted by us. We reserve the right to decline representation should circumstances change.

As you are aware, in Illinois there are various deadlines for filing a complaint, filing an answer to a complaint, or taking other action in order to preserve your legal rights, and avoid a complete loss of those rights. You should retain counsel immediately in order to be fully advised of your rights, and to be fully informed of the applicable time period within which those rights must be asserted. If you were to delay in doing so, it might result in your potential cause of action being forever barred.