Wife keeping entire tax refund (I owe no back support!) is this legal??!!

[Elriksmith]

I live in the Portland Oregon area, my wife lives across the state line in Vnacouver, Washington. We filed our taxes jointly and arranged for the fereral return to be direct deposited into her account. Now the the money is there and she is refusing me my half. The return money is all based off of my wages, and I owe absolutly no child or spousal support as the hearing is not untill the end of march (04).

Is this legal for her to be keeping money that was deposited by the federal gov. for both of us? It was a joint tax return, and I am wondering if I am with or without recourse on this action. I allready contacted her bank, they said call teh IRS, and teh IRS said seek legal advice. Is she able to get away with this because of some "your still married" law, and if so am I then not legally able to (if not withdraw money from her account directly) take and sell jointly owned property currently at her residence to compensate?

Help please, and thnx in advance!

 

[hexeliebe]

You are in deep doo doo bubba

as for the legal aspects of your decision to allow her to deposit the monies, I'll let someone else have a crack at you.

 

[Elriksmith]

so, in short my misplaced trust is my nine inch coffin nail? lol, ok, so if I have no viable recourse to obtaine my half, can I at least ensure that the department of health services knows about this so the soon-to-be decided child support is offset?

thnx-

 

[hexeliebe]

Against my better judgement I'm going to give you two words:

Marital Asset

 

[Elriksmith]

"In its modern and most broad sense, therefore, dissipation is any wrongful conduct by the owning spouse which has the effect of removing property from the reach of the court in divorce proceedings."

So, would this be something I would have to bring up in Divorce Court, and hope that the Judge would hold her responssible for? And if so, would that mean that I need to ask for a Court Ruled division of all marital assets in order to make the tax return an approchable subject?

thnx

 

[hexeliebe]

I doubt that it would make much difference.

But your first stop should be a divorce attorney, which you should have been doing a long time ago.

Sorry, but divorce is never easy or a do-it-yourself job.

 

[stealth2]

Your best bet would be to simply make sure it is included as part of the marital assets to be divided. I wouldn't suggest selling off stuff that she's got at her place.

 

[SDguy5150]

hexeliebe said:

I doubt that it would make much difference.

But your first stop should be a divorce attorney, which you should have been doing a long time ago.

Sorry, but divorce is never easy or a do-it-yourself job.


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I am guessing that you are in the business of divorce? Considering I was able to take care of my divorce all by myself, that seems to be quite an arrogant attitude regarding what normal people can and cannot do.

 

[stealth2]

Actually, hex is not in the "business of divorce". For better or worse, tho, most people are not capable of effectively dealing with the business end of a divorce when they're also dealing with the emotional end. In addition, most people are not legally savvy, and don't have the time or inclination to do the research to get up to speed on what is and is not legally possible.