Divorce and Tax Returns

David P. Badanes, Esq.

If your tax returns are incorrect or even worse, you have engaged in tax evasion or in submitting fraudulent tax returns, then you face serious consequences.  If you are involved in a divorce and the Court determines that you engaged in tax evasion or tax fraud, the Court has the ability to forward this information to the Internal Revenue Service for further investigation.

Clearly, engaging in tax fraud can be a crime and also lead to substantial tax penalties.  Evidence of tax fraud, under-reporting of income and other examples of tax evasion often are revealed in divorce cases.  In addition to reporting the improper taxes to the I.R.S., the Court will most likely impute additional income to your reported income.

Some spouses will claim that they did not know that their spouse was improperly concealing income.  This is known as the “innocent spouse” rule.  To claim that you are an innocent claim, then you have to show that at the time that the joint return was signed, that you could not have been expected to know of the grossly erroneous item due to the active deceit or evasion of the culpable spouse.  This can be very hard to show.

If your taxes contain incorrect information, it is important to hire an attorney who can help you.  Call David Badanes and the Badanes Law Office today at 631-239-1702, email at david@dbnylaw.com or visit our web site: www.dbnylaw.com.  The Badanes Law Office has offices in Northport and Uniondale.

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