A friend of mine is in the midst of divorce. She has been trying to get her husband to get their taxes done since late January. He’s working with an accountant, who’s supposed to run numbers both ways (filing jointly or separately), but she still hasn’t seen anything.
She is suspicious, like he’s going to shove something under her nose on April 14 and say she has to sign it that way, because of the April 15 deadline.
Is she right? Could there be something he’s trying to manipulate? Can she protect herself in any way (like, pro-actively telling the IRS they need an extension)?
IANAA, but I don’t think there’s anything that would prevent her from filing an extension.
I’m curious, though. Since their divorce wasn’t finalized by the end of the year, is there any reason to change whatever method they were using to file their taxes in previous years? Did something else significant change that might cause filing the other way to be advantageous now? Does she have any idea what her husband’s finances look like from last year, or is his accountant the only one that has figures for both of them?
He was always the one who handled financial stuff in years past, and part of the divorce hangup has been her lawyer’s inability to get satisfactory discovery of his economic position.
IOW, she knows he has accounts in his name only; she thinks he’s trying to hide something.
Again, not speaking as any sort of expert, if I were her, I’d probably ask for a copy of whatever his accountant prepares, along with any backup for those preparations, so that I could take it to my own accountant for a second opinion. Prior to signing anything. And if they don’t turn it over to her in sufficient time, she files an extension and continues to request the documentation.
The issue with filing jointly is that your friend will be signing off on her husband’s income to the IRS, which would make it difficult for her to claim that he’s hiding income elsewhere.
If she tries to bring up the issue of hidden income during her divorce case, her husband’s attorney will wave the joint income taxes in front of the judge and say that the wife is either lying to the court or the IRS.
The game of justice is not a passive sport. Your friend better start being proactive if she wants a good outcome in her divorce case. Relying on solely on her attorney for discovery is not her best option.
She should do some ground work on her husband’s financial situation and drop the “my husband always handled the financials” bullshit. She should consult her own accountant to run the numbers both ways. She can use last year’s income taxes if her financial situation doesn’t fluctuate much from year to year. Or do what Asimovian suggested and get a copy of the income taxes from her husband’s accountant and take them to her own accountant for a second opinion.