Get Form Sc8857

You should file Form 8857 as soon as you become aware of a tax liability for which you believe only your spouse or former spouse should be held responsible. The following are some of the ways you may become aware of such a liability.

On the death of one spouse and the tax returns were filed jointly and there are unpaid taxes, the surviving spouse in most cases is held liable to pay them. The death of the spouse will not change or relieve the surviving spouse from being held personally liable for those unpaid taxes.

You may request innocent spouse relief if: You filed a joint return with your spouse. Your taxes were understated due to errors on your return. You didn't know about the errors.

The innocent spouse rule is a provision of U.S. tax law, revised most recently in 1998, which allows a spouse to seek relief from penalties resulting from underpayment of tax by a spouse. The rule was created partly due to spouses not telling their partners the entire truth about their financial situation.

You do not qualify for innocent spouse relief, separation of liability relief, or relief from liability for tax attributable to an item of community income. You have an understated tax or unpaid tax. You and your spouse (or former spouse) did not transfer assets to one another as a part of a fraudulent scheme.

There are two types of tax relief for spouses: Injured spouse relief lets you reclaim money taken from your tax refund to cover your spouse's debts. Innocent spouse relief relieves you from paying additional federal income tax owed by your spouse due to errors on a joint tax return.

Taxpayers file Form 8857 to request relief from tax liability, plus related penalties and interest, when they believe only their spouse or former spouse should be held responsible for all or part of the tax.

Form 8379 can be e-filed. An innocent spouse (Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief) is asking the IRS not to hold him or her liable for tax resulting from actions of the other spouse in a joint return. Form 8857 is not transmitted with an e-filed return, but must be paper-filed separately.

You're an injured spouse if your share of the refund on your joint tax return was (or is expected to be) applied against a separate past-due debt that belongs just to your spouse, with whom you filed the joint return.