August 15, 2007

Innocent Spouse Relief – What's That?

There are three types of Innocent Spouse Relief. An application for Innocent Spouse Relief is used when a taxpayer feels like their spouse or former spouse should be responsible for a tax liability. The three types of Innocent Spouse Relief are:

1. Innocent Spouse Relief from an Understatement of Income §6015(b) or what I call "Classic" Innocent Spouse

2. Separate Liability Election

3. Equitable Relief

Although Congress set up the program to correct wrongs done to innocent victim spouses, in true form the program is so complicated that most taxpayers can't figure out how to get the help that they deserve. The process is very slow, convoluted and difficult to navigate through. Currently, applications for Innocent Spouse Relief are taking 12-24 months to process. This is not all bad as the IRS is prohibited from levying a taxpayer while an application for Innocent Spouse Relief is pending but a downside is that the Collection Statute of Limitations is tolled (stopped) while such an application is pending. Each such case must be carefully analyzed based upon the particular facts and circumstances. View the short video below for a very brief overview of each. More details to follow in a future post. Don't forget if you have IRS Problems and need IRS Help don't hesitate to contact us for IRS Help.