EX-Spouse Cheated on Taxes

[MLHT]

I was married for six years to my former spouse. We lived in California the entire time we were married. Our divorce was final in 1998 and since then we have both remarried. My Ex did all of the filing of our tax returns because we had three houses in three different states and he was heavily invested. After looking over old tax returns, from my former marriage, and talking with a tax preparer about deductions taken, I have found out that my ex-spouse was cheating on our taxes and based on his history he is probably still cheating on them. My questions are:

Should I inform the IRS or should I cross my fingers they don't audit him or me?

If I do inform them can I get immunity by coming forward and disclosing the descrepancies?

I know the IRS can audit tax records up to six years unfortunately for me that will be until 2003 for me with my former spouse.

Any help in this matter is appreciated.

 

[wowie]

I am not a CPA and not an attorney. . .

Hmmmm. . .to some degree, yes, you can get "immunity" under the innocent spouse clause for your ex-hubby's ingnorance. This is a horrible question to ask, but are the "mistakes" valuble mistakes. . would they mean paying a lot more in taxes? Are they obvious cheating blunders or are they possibly just that he didn't know how to fill them out correctly?

Yes, they can audit for up to, unfortunately, 7 years. Hmmmm, since I do not have a license to worry about losing I can tell you what I would do. . . I would evaluate your situation. Are you going to personally be worried over this until 2004? Is this going to ruin your quality of life? If you do call the IRS are you going to owe them lots of money? I say if it is a matter of a couple hundren dollars. . .cross your fingers and don't look back. If it is in the thousands range, the IRS will come down on you MUCH harder if they are the ones to catch the mistake. Various things trigger audits. . . drastic lowering of income, several marriages, change in dependant status, itemizing deductions, high charitable contributions. . . almost anything and yet almost nothing. . .depends on how they are feeling that day.

If I were you, I would consult with a CPA and the attorney that you used to file your divorce, because your divoce decree will play a part in who pays what.

 

[MLHT]

Wowie, Thanks for you response. Just to clarify we are talking about thousands of dollars, my ex deliberately cheated on the taxes this was not an innocent thing. As for the divorce we did not have an attorney, we did everything ourselves since we did not have any children and I wanted nothing of his....I was thankful to leave the marriage with my health.

 

[wowie]

MLHT--
I think in that case, I would contact the IRS AFTER and I say AFTER I contacted a CPA and an attorney. Often times local CPAs have contacts and business relationships with some IRS agents. This could help you. Just a rumor, but I have heard from some CPAs that there is a reward for turning in someone who has evaded taxes. . . could just be crazy accountant humor. Probably most of your problems can be handled by a CPA, but it couldn't hurt to have the advice of an attorney. Read your divorce decree very carefully because he might have prepared for this day if he is a wise, maniplulating man. That is where the attorney comes into play. He/she will have to interpret what is meant in reference to the tax situation by reviewing your divorce decree.

One more thought. . . since you have this problem with taxes, you might want to pull a tri-merged credit report on yourself (about $60, you can get one via the net). Tri-merged means that you get all of your credit info from the three major credit bureaus (Trans-union, Experian, and Equifax). He may have gone deeper than just taxes.