LdiJ
Senior Member
Well, then morally I would consider her to be responsible for 66% of the extra money.The checks were signed and given to the lawyer to put into an escrow account until they could be divided up. She eventually got 66%, I got 34% of the refund.
Yes we both signed the checks. Yes neither one of us verified the amount on the check with the tax return. We just signed the checks and turned them over to the lawyer.
However, that is not how the IRS looks at it. The IRS considers you both to be responsible for 100% of it, and will (as they did) take it from wherever they can get it.
I am not sure whether you have any legal mechanism to collect from her now. You can try re-opening the property settlement, but to be honest, the judge doesn't have any autority to order her to sign the amended state returns. The judge still may order her to do so, and she may comply, but technically the judge does NOT have the authority to order her to do so.
However, as an object lesson to anyone else reading this thread...if the IRS sends you a bigger refund than you were expecting, do NOT spend it until you verify that it actually belongs to you. Under the law, you are not even supposed to cash the check in that situation.
If you had handled the extra refund properly in the first place, you wouldn't be in the position that you are in now.