IRS Forms and Information Resources

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Michelle O'Neil
 

Posted by Michelle May O'Neil on April 11, 2011

Jeanne M. Hannah is a family law attorney in Traverse City, Michigan who has written an excellent family law blog for a number of years. She recently gathered links to a number of IRS tax resources and publications and published them in her blog. The following is the text of her post of March 14, 2011:


 

The IRS has released updated publications and forms that help divorced and divorcing people understand and deal with these issues:
  • income tax filing status
  • the right to claim tax exemptions
  • how to protect against tax liabilities arising from FOC intercepts of tax refunds on joint returns when, in fact the intercept is for child support arrearages of only one spouse and some of the tax refund belongs to the other spouse.
  • how to claim "innocent spouse" relief from liability caused by unreported income by the other spouse are now available.

 

See, in particular, IRS Publication 504 Divorced or Separated Individuals [January 10, 2011]

Other recently published and/or updated publications or IRS Forms that family lawyers' clients will find helpful and informative are:

Injured Spouse Relief: IRS Form 8379 is filed by one spouse (the injured spouse) on a jointly filed tax return when the joint overpayment expected was applied (offset) to a past-due obligation of the other spouse (e.g., a tax intercept for unpaid child support arrearages. This is how the injured spouse recovers her tax refund. See also the instructions for using Form 8379 here.

IRS Publication 971. How to Claim Innocent Spouse Relief. [Revised February 2011]

Innocent Spouse Relief: IRS Form 8857 is used to request exemption from tax liabilities cause by the under-reporting of income by the other spouse on a joint return filed during the marriage. See also Instructions for Filing Form 8857

Other recently revised publications of interest to those recently divorced or divorcing are these:

Publication 501: Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information [Published January 5, 2011]

Publication 544: Sales and Other Dispositions of Property, including transfers to spouse, rollovers or retirements accounts

Publication 555: Community Property, including information about how to handle income from separate property [Revised December 2010]

Publication 590: Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) [Published February 3, 2011]


 

Hat tip to Dick Price for posting this helpful article.

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Federal law trumps Texas court on tax issues.

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Nathan Anderson

In a July 31, 2009 opinion by the Dallas Court of Appeals, it was confirmed that Federal law trumps Texas law when it comes to income tax issues.  In In re S.L.M., the mother brought child custody proceedings against father.  The district court appointed mother and father as joint managing conservators and awarded mother the right to claim the children as exemptions on her federal income tax return. On appeal, father contended the district court erred in awarding mother the right to claim the two children as tax exemptions.  In re S.L.M., ___ S.W.3d ___, No. 05-08-01277-CV, 2009 WL 2343264 (Tex. App. - Dallas July 31, 2009, no pet. h.).

The Dallas Court of Appeals held the district court erred in awarding mother the exemption rights and examined tax exemptions under the United States Internal Revenue Code.  In computing taxable income, a taxpayer is permitted to claim dependents as exemptions.  29 U.S.C. Sect. 151(a) & (c).  The Internal Revenue Code provides that for divorced parents the custodial parent is the party entitled to the dependent exemption.  Id. at Sect. 152(e)(1).  The Internal Revenue Code defines a custodial parent as the parent having custody of the child for the greater portion of the calendar year.  Id. at Sect. 152(e)(4).

In applying the relevant provisions of the Internal Revenue Code to the facts, the court held that on any given week the father had possession of the children for approximately 100 hours as compared to 68 hours a week for the mother.  Accordingly, the trial court erred in awarding mother the dependent exemptions and reversed its ruling. 

The S.L.M. ruling shows that notwithstanding the power of the district court, Federal law trumps Texas law when it comes to tax issues.  As a Dallas divorce lawyer it is important to stay on top of not only family law developments but developments in other areas that impact family law, including (although sometimes mind numbing) tax law. 

 

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