Tax Refund Issue

What is the name of your state? California

My ex & I were legally separated in July of 2007. I have now received a tax refund for 07 (married filing joint) and did not outline how it should be divided in the marital settlement agreement. Since California is a community property state does the refund have to be split 50/50?What is the name of your state?

freedom71107 said:

What is the name of your state? California

My ex & I were legally separated in July of 2007. I have now received a tax refund for 07 (married filing joint) and did not outline how it should be divided in the marital settlement agreement. Since California is a community property state does the refund have to be split 50/50?What is the name of your state?

Click to expand...

Since CA is a community property state and the separation agreement does not have any financial stipulations in it, she is entitled to half of that check as you filed your taxes married, filing joint. Basically, it is the refund from taxes withheld from your *combined* income. I am not sure if you filed separately, it would be any different for the separated half of the year but currently you seem to be forking over half of that check.

wherami8 said:

Since CA is a community property state and the separation agreement does not have any financial stipulations in it, she is entitled to half of that check as you filed your taxes married, filing joint. Basically, it is the refund from taxes withheld from your *combined* income. I am not sure if you filed separately, it would be any different for the separated half of the year but currently you seem to be forking over half of that check.

Click to expand...

Of course, it's up to the judge, but in our case (bonus rather than tax refund, but the principle is the same), separated for half of the year, my ex got 1/4 of the bonus - that is, she got 1/2 of the bonus for the time period we were married. I assume that if they had filed separately that the same thing would apply for the tax refund. Of course, there's no guarantee that the OP would be better off since the refund would probably have been smaller if they had filed separately.

mistoffolees said:

Of course, it's up to the judge, but in our case (bonus rather than tax refund, but the principle is the same), separated for half of the year, my ex got 1/4 of the bonus - that is, she got 1/2 of the bonus for the time period we were married. I assume that if they had filed separately that the same thing would apply for the tax refund. Of course, there's no guarantee that the OP would be better off since the refund would probably have been smaller if they had filed separately.

Click to expand...

Was the bonus YOURS though that you earned? With married filing joint you would also have to consider how much income she earned and how much in taxes she paid as well as what he paid versus his earnings. If he would have ended up owing but for what she paid in, maybe he would be the one getting 1/4 of the income if that. How much of the refund in other words was hers and how much of the refund was his? And then they are each entitled to 1/4 of the others refund.

freedom71107 said:

What is the name of your state? California

My ex & I were legally separated in July of 2007. I have now received a tax refund for 07 (married filing joint) and did not outline how it should be divided in the marital settlement agreement. Since California is a community property state does the refund have to be split 50/50?What is the name of your state?

Click to expand...

What she doesn't know won't make her greedy.

I wish people would wise up and stop letting the government use their money all year. In other words plan for NO refund and in fact use the governments money all year and plan to pay in a little.

If you took this advice you wouldn't have to worry about a greedy gold digger coming after your refund. In fact you could claim she owed you half the amount that you would need to pay the government.

freedom71107 said:

What is the name of your state? California

My ex & I were legally separated in July of 2007. I have now received a tax refund for 07 (married filing joint) and did not outline how it should be divided in the marital settlement agreement. Since California is a community property state does the refund have to be split 50/50?What is the name of your state?

Click to expand...

Legally, I think it has to be split 50/50 under community property rules.

Morally leaves a whole lot of leeway in many different directions.

Ohiogal said:

Was the bonus YOURS though that you earned? With married filing joint you would also have to consider how much income she earned and how much in taxes she paid as well as what he paid versus his earnings. If he would have ended up owing but for what she paid in, maybe he would be the one getting 1/4 of the income if that. How much of the refund in other words was hers and how much of the refund was his? And then they are each entitled to 1/4 of the others refund.

Click to expand...

I don't think that's correct. In a community property state, it's community property - which means they each get half - regardless of who had the greater earnings.

Keep the whole thing and set a side half in a savings account just in case X asks for it.

freedom71107 said:

What is the name of your state? California

My ex & I were legally separated in July of 2007. I have now received a tax refund for 07 (married filing joint) and did not outline how it should be divided in the marital settlement agreement. Since California is a community property state does the refund have to be split 50/50?What is the name of your state?

Click to expand...

I forgot a very important question. How did YOU file married filing joint and get a tax refund that was not also in your spouse's name?

I hope you did not file a joint return, online, without your spouse's direct, written agreement, and I hope that you did not direct deposit the refund into a bank account that was solely in your name, also without your spouse's direct, written agreement. If you did do any of the above, you committed tax fraud and your spouse could make life very difficult for you with the IRS.

Quite frankly a joint return should not have been filed without a complete, written agreement, in advance to do so, and how to handle the refund.

LdiJ said:

I forgot a very important question. How did YOU file married filing joint and get a tax refund that was not also in your spouse's name?

I hope you did not file a joint return, online, without your spouse's direct, written agreement, and I hope that you did not direct deposit the refund into a bank account that was solely in your name, also without your spouse's direct, written agreement. If you did do any of the above, you committed tax fraud and your spouse could make life very difficult for you with the IRS.

Quite frankly a joint return should not have been filed without a complete, written agreement, in advance to do so, and how to handle the refund.

Click to expand...

Is there a form or other instructions for this direct, written agreement in some IRS publication?? I doubt the IRS would give a rats ass as long as they get their money!!!

Bali Hai said:

Is there a form or other instructions for this direct, written agreement in some IRS publication?? I doubt the IRS would give a rats ass as long as they get their money!!!

Click to expand...

Well, there's the fact that married, filing jointly requires both spouse's signatures. If he forged his wife's signature, he could be in a world of trouble. You are certifying under penalty of law that the information you provide is correct.

If, OTOH, he didn't sign in the wife's box, it should have been returned by the IRS for her signature.

mistoffolees said:

I don't think that's correct. In a community property state, it's community property - which means they each get half - regardless of who had the greater earnings.

Click to expand...

I can definitely agree with that but I was just pointing out the whole difficulty in stating that because they were married half the year that she should get a 1/4 or whatever because that is how it worked with the bonus.

Ohiogal said:

I can definitely agree with that but I was just pointing out the whole difficulty in stating that because they were married half the year that she should get a 1/4 or whatever because that is how it worked with the bonus.

Click to expand...

That's a clever interpretation since your original post referred to taxes and the refund 7 times, but only mentioned the bonus as an aside one time.

As I stated in my original post, it's all up to the judge. I never claimed that there was any guarantee that my situation would apply but rather it was an example of how it COULD BE split.

mistoffolees said:

Well, there's the fact that married, filing jointly requires both spouse's signatures. If he forged his wife's signature, he could be in a world of trouble. You are certifying under penalty of law that the information you provide is correct.

If, OTOH, he didn't sign in the wife's box, it should have been returned by the IRS for her signature.

Click to expand...

The ONLINE signature requires a sequence of 5 digits and you don't need to remember them.

I see nowhere that a from needs to be filed with IRS verifying that these signatures are authentic!!!

Bali Hai said:

The ONLINE signature requires a sequence of 5 digits and you don't need to remember them.

I see nowhere that a from needs to be filed with IRS verifying that these signatures are authentic!!!

Click to expand...

Even online, you are stating that the information you provide is correct. By signing for someone else (doesn't matter if it's electronically or with stone and chisel), you are committing fraud.