Freaking out about taxes

[AmericanDreamer23 2]

So my husband and I decided to file married but filing separate. I have just noticed that the accountant completely screwed up his taxes, they put him as filing single. My husband didn't notice as he doesn't check things like I do. We now have to do an amendment to fix this mess up. We can either do our taxes again to married filing jointly or just do his as married but filing separately. Which one are we better off to do? We worked out if we do file married jointly we owe a lot of more money back to the government which sucks. The accountant told us we are better off to just do it jointly now as it wont look good filing married separately. I have to file my I-751 in October so we have time to fix this but I am freaking out now. Will the immigration question us why he filed single? Will a letter explaining everything fix this? We have plenty of evidence to prove our marriage is real but just don't want this screwing us up. Can someone help?

[Eric-Pris 1,607]

Filing jointly is a better option for the vast majority of couples. 

 

As for immigration, they will definitely question why you didn't file together first of all, but then why he filed as single.  You should both amend your returns and file jointly, even if it's not the optimal result money-wise.  It will help establish the bona fide marriage requirement.

 

 

 

[Sukie 1,464]

Fire your accountant.

 

It doesn't matter whether you file separately or jointly.  Most couples file whatever way works to their advantage.

 

And immigration is not the primary watchdog for single vs. married.  The IRS is.  And you don't want to get into trouble with the IRS, because that WILL affect immigration.

 

Find a new accountant, and have her/him figure out whether filing separately or jointly is the best for you, then amend your returns.

 

Best of luck.

 

Sukie in NY

 

 

[AmericanDreamer23 2]

Ok so we will file jointly and definitely go to a new accountant. As for explaining to them why he filed single what would I say? I mean it was the accountants mistake, we clearly went in there and told them we were married and wanted to file separately. We were taken into 2 separate rooms and 2 different people did our taxes, the lady that did my husbands made the mistake. Sadly the accountants are not being accountable for the mistake, they are blaming it on my husband. My husband never wanted to file single, he told them he was married. I just need to know what to say in my explanation letter to immigration? Clearly I wont be able to get anything from the accountant who screwed it up as they are not owning up to doing it wrong. 

[mindthegap 2,590]

2 hours ago, AmericanDreamer23 said:

 The accountant told us we are better off to just do it jointly now as it wont look good filing married separately.

And you trust the advice of someone who just submitted a return with a pretty major error?

Who cares what 'looks good'. You do whichever saves you the most money. You don't shape your life according to some checklist that USCIS has deemed appropriate.

 

Submit the correction (at the accountants expense), then fire the accountant, and when the time comes to file your I-751, you will have the correct return showing married, and no explanation will be necessary.  'Married filing separately' and 'married filing jointly' both contain that word, which is all USCIS care about with regards to your tax returns.

 

I would be more afraid of the IRS personally.

 

 

[AmericanDreamer23 2]

Not to mention, I am worried about something else. We had a bank account together when we applied to the USCIS, now we hardly use that bank account, it doesn't have much activity anymore. We have our own bank accounts now. Will this also be an issue? Should we open another bank account? I don't need to file till October but still I am getting prepared now. 

[nightingalejules 678]

6 hours ago, AmericanDreamer23 said:

Not to mention, I am worried about something else. We had a bank account together when we applied to the USCIS, now we hardly use that bank account, it doesn't have much activity anymore. We have our own bank accounts now. Will this also be an issue? Should we open another bank account? I don't need to file till October but still I am getting prepared now. 

Send some of the records for the joint account (about one per quarter - every 3 months since you opened it). Then also send some statements of your personal accounts, and highlight the address. Even if you're using separate accounts, they show you living at the same address.

[NovaSprings 89]

Sadly this is not the first time this type of senario has been discussed on this form.  It appears most "tax accounts"  are trained to file standard,  cookie cutter prepared returns, using the software defaults.  Immigration is a world unto it's own, getting solid tax advise from professionals is, unfortunately hard to find.

Edited April 20, 2017 by NovaSprings

[lucybelle 453]

I accidentally filed "single" the first year I was married because I was married in January 2013 but I thought since I wasn't married in the previous year (the 2012 tax year) I needed to put "single".  Found out two years later I should have put "married" as I was married when I filed the taxes.  Went back and amended.  Was never an issue.

[AmericanDreamer23 2]

13 hours ago, CookieCat said:

I would NOT send statements of separate accounts. Not only would you be wasting paper but that goes against what USCIS wants to see, which is joint financial responsibility. You always have to be 100% truthful but you also don't want to send unnecessary things that are potential red flags. Now of course there's nothing wrong in couples having separate accounts in 2017 but USCIS is old school. Instead, submit random statements of your JOINT account that show you still trust each other enough to have it, but you will also have to explain that you don't use that account much anymore. Hopefully you have other evidences to show joint responsibility and joint residence.

Please have your taxes amended in sufficient time in such a way that you leave time for tax transcripts to show up. Paper amended returns take a long time to be processed with the IRS and in addition, it takes several weeks for transcripts to become available (>12 weeks). Also once transcripts become available, you should order tax account transcripts because only account transcripts will show that you rectified the "filing single" problem. You can also order tax return transcripts if you wish but they never show the amended taxes part. If I were you, I'd look into amending taxes pretty quick to show you took care of this major flaw quickly and diligently. Good luck!

Hi CookieCat,

 

Thanks for the info. I have a question, Are we better to file married jointly or married filing separate in our case? Cant make up my mind. If we do file jointly we will end up having to pay more taxes back to the IRS than if we filed seperataly. Pls advise!

[Ketsuban 1,034]

On 4/20/2017 at 11:11 AM, lucybelle said:

I accidentally filed "single" the first year I was married because I was married in January 2013 but I thought since I wasn't married in the previous year (the 2012 tax year) I needed to put "single".  Found out two years later I should have put "married" as I was married when I filed the taxes.  Went back and amended.  Was never an issue.

Is that correct? I always read you should file married if you were married by December 31st of the year being filed for. I have never read any different until I read your post. 

[lucybelle 453]

13 minutes ago, Ketsuban said:

Is that correct? I always read you should file married if you were married by December 31st of the year being filed for. I have never read any different until I read your post. 

 

Accountant told me to change it so I did.

[RaginKhmer 6]

On 4/21/2017 at 11:03 AM, lucybelle said:

 

Accountant told me to change it so I did.

Step one, find a new accountant (if you haven't already). By filing that status you have committed fraud. Regardless of it being at the behest of your accountant or not. Step two is check to see if you have that direction in writing because if you do you can at-least hold that person liable for damages should you ever be audited. The final thing you should do to is file an amended return for that year as one of the other non-Married status' and pay any penalties and fee's accrued for incorrectly filing as MFJ/MFS. Of course you don't have to do anything as the likelihood of being audited is fairly low but that's your call.

 

You can look this IRS tax rule up yourself but as Ketsuban posted, Married status is determined by your status as of Dec 31st of the tax year you are filing for, NOT the Calendar year in which you are filing. And it goes both ways, if you were Married on 01Jan13 but divorced on 02Jan13 you are considered as Married the entire tax year of 2013 if you choose. If you married on 31Dec12 then you can consider yourself Married that entire tax year of 2012. If you married on 01Jan13 and were at no time on any day of 2012 in a married status (even if you divorced quickly) then you could not legally file as MFJ/MFS for 2012 taxes.

[Ketsuban 1,034]

On 4/21/2017 at 0:03 PM, lucybelle said:

 

Accountant told me to change it so I did.

As RagingKhmer stated, you need to go back and change your 2012 return to single. You weren't married in 2012.

[AmericanDreamer23 2]

Ok I am freaking out. I made an amendment to my husband's taxes from him filing single to married filing separate and its now August and they haven't been changed yet. I have to file in October, what is the worst that can happen? Will they deny my I-751? I am about to have a breakdown, this is absolutely ridiculous. All of this stress because of some lousy accountant. 

Edited August 2, 2017 by AmericanDreamer23