Innocent Spouses

The 1998 tax law widened the definition of "Innocent Spouse Relief" so that relief from IRS tax liability is now a lot more available for those spouses who filed tax returns jointly, but the situations say that it is unfair for the IRS to hold both spouses equally responsible for the joint tax liability. In many of these tax cases, a spouse is relieved of responsibility to the IRS for tax, interest, and tax penalties on a joint tax return. This is called innocent spouse relief.

Many married taxpayers actually choose to file a joint tax return with the IRS because of certain tax benefits this filing status allows them. Both taxpayers are thus jointly and individually responsible to the IRS for the tax and any interest or tax penalties due on the joint tax return even if they later divorce. This holds well even if a divorce decree states that a former spouse will be responsible to the IRS for any tax amounts due the IRS on previously filed joint tax returns. One spouse may be held responsible to the IRS for all the tax due even if all the income was earned by the other spouse, according to the rule..