Innocent Spouse Relief

The first type of relief offered in innocent spouse relief is also called innocent spouse relief. This can be thought of as the classic type of relief because this was the original type of relief offered until additions revisions were made. In order to qualify for "classic" innocent spouse relief you must meet all of the following 5 conditions:

1) You must have been married and you filed a joint return with your spouse or ex-spouse. If you did not file a joint return, you will not qualify for this type of relief.
2) The filed joint return must have reported a lower tax amount due than what actually was as a result of errors that your spouse or ex-spouse made. These errors can be a anything that created incorrect deductions or left out material information in the tax return.
3) At the time you signed the joint return you did not know about the errors.
4)You must be able to prove that at the time you signed, you did not know anything about the errors, and must have had no reason to know at all. An example of this is if your ex or current spouse had won $15,000 at the casino. Of this $15,000 they only reported $5,000 of it and had told you originally that they had only won $5,000.
5) You have never transferred assets or any item that holds monetary value between each other as a way of hiding money or as a plan for some type of fraudulent scheme.

Separation of liability is another type of relief offered under the innocent spouse rule. With this type of relief, the amount of the understatement of tax is separated between you and your former spouse. It is divided up by the amount that each spouse is individually responsible for. To qualify for this type of relief, you must meet a separate set of requirements, some similar to the classic type of relief.
1) You have unpaid liabilities caused by an understatement of tax.
2) You must have filed a joint return.
3) You are divorced or legally separated from your former spouse with whom you filed the joint return with. You can still qualify for this type of relief if you are a widow.
4) You are not still living with or considered a member of the same household as your former spouse. You must not have been either for the twelve months period ending on the date you filed Form 8857.

Equitable relief is the last option to consider if you do not qualify for any other relief mechanism under innocent spouse relief. This was the last type of relief created because the justice has determined that there are times under the old rule where it would be inequitable to hold the individual liable for the tax owed even if they did not qualify for "classic" innocent spouse relief or separation of liability. With this type of relief you are able to get relief for both and understatement of tax or an underpayment of tax. There are seven requirements in order to qualify for equitable relief. The following are the requirements:

1) You are not able to qualify for "classic" innocent spouse relief or relief by separation of liability.
2) You did not file the return with the intent of committing fraud
3) You did not pay the tax amount owed
4) There was no property or assets transferred between you and your spouse/ex-spouse for the purpose of avoiding paying the tax owed
5) You must be able to prove that it would be unfair to hold you liable for the understatement or the underpayment of tax.
6) The reason you are seeking relief is the fault of your spouse/ex-spouse.

The folks at InnocentSpouseRelief.com have made it easy to quickly determine if you would be a candidate for receiving innocent spouse relief. All you have to do is answer a few basic questions about your situation and it will tell you if you are likely to qualify for innocent spouse relief (separation of liability or equitable relief)

To access the tool you can go here and determine if you would qualify:
Innocent Spouse Relief Qualification Tool

In order to request innocent spouse relief, equitable relief, or separation of liability, you must file form 8857 with the IRS. It is also highly suggested that you also included an additional letter stating your situation to explain in further detail why it would be unfair to hold you liable. In some instructions it says to file IRS form 12510 as well as form 8857, this has changed in recent years and form 8857 has been revised to included the questions from form 12510, so there is no need to file this form as well. Many states also have their special individual forms they need you to fill out that are similar to form 8857 in order to get state specific innocent spouse relief. Go here to get the most recent and updated Innocent Spouse Relief forms for both IRS and state specific forms.

When filing for innocent spouse relief it is very important it is done the correct way. If you file form 8857 with the IRS or specific state and are then denied, it is highly unlikely that you will ever be able to qualify for this type of relief for the given tax year ever again. It is best to apply for all types of relief that you think you could qualify for when filing form 8857, because you cannot file for "classic" innocent spouse relief then try to qualify for another type of relief afterwards. Most of the time the IRS will consider you for the other types of relief even if you don't apply for them when filing form 8857, but you are more likely to qualify if you apply the correct way.

When applying for innocent spouse relief, it is suggested that you get help from an Innocent Spouse Specialist. A specialist knows exactly what it takes to qualify and can help in filling out the forms properly to ensure that you get the relief you deserve from the IRS/and or state.