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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3

    Default Filed As Single Before Divorce Was Final

    I realize that I dropped the ball big time, so please go easy on me. Basically, I filed my tax return for 2008 already, and have just found out that my divorce is not yet final. The problem is, I filed as Single because I thought the divorce had been finalized at the beginning of last year. I'm sure you are wondering how I didn't know my divorce was not final and here's the answer. I was an idiot and in order to save hassle/money my ex and I used a family member, who is also a lawyer, to handle all of the paperwork. Since there were no assets, children, etc, it was supposed to be a quick and easy process. The problem is that the family member is married to his sister. Yeah, I know it wasn't smart, but I can't re-do it now. I "assumed" that since I hadn't heard anything from either of them since April 2008(we live in different cities over 5 hours away), that everything was fine and was over. Since this particular family member was basically doing us a favor, he didn't really go into detail about the process with me or give me any information as to what I should expect, etc. I had never even heard of a divorce decree until recently when all of this came to light...my ex basically sent me an email saying he needed my tax information so he could file the taxes and I was shocked. I guess you could say I am young and inexperienced when it comes to this type of thing. Now, what I am worried about is whether or not I will be in some sort of trouble with the IRS. Do they do any sort of routine check when you change your filing status from married to single? I know they didn't do anything when we went from single to married. It was never my intention to commit any sort of fraud, but I don't want this to come back to bite me later on. Any input, knowledge, advice, etc would be most helpful!

    I'm in Texas BTW, which is a community property state so I'm sure that throws a HUGE kink in the whole thing

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Filed As Single Before Divorce Was Final

    Quote Quoting dizzydezz55
    View Post
    I realize that I dropped the ball big time, so please go easy on me. Basically, I filed my tax return for 2008 already, and have just found out that my divorce is not yet final. The problem is, I filed as Single because I thought the divorce had been finalized at the beginning of last year. I'm sure you are wondering how I didn't know my divorce was not final and here's the answer. I was an idiot and in order to save hassle/money my ex and I used a family member, who is also a lawyer, to handle all of the paperwork. Since there were no assets, children, etc, it was supposed to be a quick and easy process. The problem is that the family member is married to his sister. Yeah, I know it wasn't smart, but I can't re-do it now. I "assumed" that since I hadn't heard anything from either of them since April 2008(we live in different cities over 5 hours away), that everything was fine and was over. Since this particular family member was basically doing us a favor, he didn't really go into detail about the process with me or give me any information as to what I should expect, etc. I had never even heard of a divorce decree until recently when all of this came to light...my ex basically sent me an email saying he needed my tax information so he could file the taxes and I was shocked. I guess you could say I am young and inexperienced when it comes to this type of thing. Now, what I am worried about is whether or not I will be in some sort of trouble with the IRS. Do they do any sort of routine check when you change your filing status from married to single? I know they didn't do anything when we went from single to married. It was never my intention to commit any sort of fraud, but I don't want this to come back to bite me later on. Any input, knowledge, advice, etc would be most helpful!

    I'm in Texas BTW, which is a community property state so I'm sure that throws a HUGE kink in the whole thing
    It does throw a kink in things.

    However, it may not be as bad as you think, since there are no children involved. If neither of you have a reason to itemize, and your incomes are not too far apart you may not find any significant difference. The tax tables for single and MFS are the same up to about 64k of taxable income, and the standard deduction is the same.

    Provide your information to your ex, and ask your ex to provide the same to you.

    Then re-run your numbers based on a proper "married filing separately" return.

    If there is no difference, then don't worry about it. As long as they get the proper amount of tax, the IRS isn't going to care if you goofed and used the wrong filing status. However, if you underpaid, then you will want to get an amended return filed before April 15th, in order to avoid any penalties.

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