getting divorced getting 50 bucks back on taxes..?

Question

my wife has a filing date the 5 of march ,, i just made the taxes
seperately they came up back that i was getting $50 back,
they guy says its cause we still married , those this make sense..
anyone out there who knows a probable cause ,, he made them in turbotax by the way..

Answer 1

When you file Married Filing Separately, your tax bite will be much higher. So yes, the small refund makes perfect sense.

Even though you are going through divorce proceedings it is entirely possible to file a joint return, since you were still legally married on 12/31/2006. Typically you'd split the refund with your estranged spouse. If you're still on civil terms with her, it would be worth it financially to file a joint return. That's exactly what I did with my ex, and it saved a ton of money.

If you both have filed separate returns already, you can still file an amended joint return. It probably is worth a phone call (to her or your attorney) and see if she's willing to do this strictly in the interest of putting some more $$$ in both of your pockets.

Answer 2

Yep. Married filing separately is a bad, bad thing because it's the highest tax bracket, you don't get to count any Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Credit, and there are other credits that you can't claim, too.

If you're still married, you can still file a joint return. All you have to do is get along long enough to sign the thing and get it sent off, and you can have it direct-deposited to your checking or savings accounts.

You may want to use a tax firm to do this, because their software will allow you to split the refund amount and have it all directly deposited to whatever accounts you want (Block has a limit of 3 accounts, and I imagine Jackson-Hewitt is the same because both of them use HSBC bank.)

At the office where I work, we see this all the time. Also, in the divorce decree, if you have kids, you want to ask that you get to claim a dependency deduction (for one child every other year) or be able to split the tax benefits for more than one chlid. If you don't get that in writing at the time the divorce goes to court, there's heck to pay.

Lots of folks have two kids and the dad claims one and mom claims the other. Whatever you can work out on that will be a great help in the future.

Also, if you end up paying any medical bills for your kids and you want to itemize on a tax return, you can count those medical bills even if the kids didn't live with you... IF they live with either you or her all year.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You haven't provided enough info to be of much help unfortunately. For example, how did you figure on filing? The IRS hates Married Filing Seperately. Have to mail it in, and both parties lose most of the credits and advantages. What do you mean by "filing date the 5 of March"? Divorce filing, or tax filing? Do you have kids? If so, who gets to claim them? How long have you been seperated? Are you legally seperated by a court of law, or just not living together? Any mention in the divorce decree who gets to claim the kids? Any chance she will file jointly one more time and split the refund?

Answer 4

The other responders who suggest filing joint if you and your wife can agree are making a good suggestion.

One addition - you don't need to go to H&R or J-H to split a refund. This is a new feature the IRS added this year, allowing a direct deposit of a refund to be split between three accounts. Use form 8888 and you can do it yourself.

Answer 5

Since you are "getting divorced," for tax purposes, you are still married. Call your soon to be ex-wife or her attorney to see if you can file a joint tax return for the year. You probably will get a bigger refund.