Effect of Changing Tax Filing Status After Divorce/Annulment

[bholabhala]

My question involves a marriage in the state of: Texas

So here;s the deal. I filed my 2011 taxes back in Feb 2012. I filed as Married Joint and now wanna go ahead and change it to Married Separate. Since Texas is a community state. Will doing this enable my wife, at a later time, to claim half of my earnings? I just dont want to keep her on my tax returns, since she was not living with me, and has $0 income

I just dont want to shoot myself in the foot and enable her to take any action against me in the future, since i am going through annulment now

[Dogmatique]

Divorce or annulment?

[bholabhala]

Going for annulment right now. Not sure if it will be granted. Will it make a difference if it is annulment or divorce?

[Dogmatique]

If your marriage is annulled, it is as if it never happened in the first place. Divorce is not the same. I thought you had already filed for divorce in 2010 though?

[bholabhala]

Nope. Filing for annulment now.

[Dogmatique]

Annulment based on...?

(This is admittedly partially out of curiosity; it's not easy to obtain an annulment, and divorce is generally far easier and far cheaper)

- - - Updated - - -

(This is to what I was referring, btw: http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106653 )

- - - Updated - - -

To answer the tax question yes, it makes a difference.

Again, annulment means the marriage never existed and you will have to amend certain tax returns:

If you obtain a court decree of annulment which holds that no valid marriage ever existed, you are considered unmarried even if you filed a joint tax return in an earlier year.

You must file amended returns for any previous years which you filed as Married Filing Joint for all tax years affected by the annulment that are not closed by the statute of limitations (generally 3 years). The amended returns should use either single, or if you qualify, Head of Household status.

[bholabhala]

Annulment is based on fraud for immigration benefits.

[Dogmatique]

Do you realize how incredibly difficult that is to prove?

[bholabhala]

Even if i have video recordings of her and her mom openly stating that the sole reason behind marriage was for immigrating to USA? Also killing of my unborn child, right after obtaining conditional green card?

[Dogmatique]

Were those recordings obtained legally?

What is this killing of an unborn child? If you mean she got a legal abortion, that is NOT "killing" your unborn child - legally speaking.