My husband's employment filed him as married for 3 years now before we were married. Can we re-do his taxes?

Question

We are now married and are being asked for past tax returns, only problem is we don't know if he was filed as married or single. The company claims they never kept his paperwork. If they stupidly claimed him as married, can we fix this and if so, how long to process everything? Thanks!

My husband is mexican and worked here on a visa before- he didn't understand much English and just signed without knowing what it was unfornately. That's why I'm questioning things- before the company put everyone as married when he wasn't. Now I don't know how they filed him in the past.

Answer 1

If you were not married at the time, you together will not re-do the tax returns, he will. If he filed a married return, you would have had to sign for it as well unless he filed with someone else.

All tax returns have a personal signature(s) on them. If they are e-filed there are transmission documents which are kept by the transmitter. On a joint return both spouses must sign either the return itself or a transmission document.

If you cannot get copies of the tax returns from whoever did the returns, request copies from the IRS. Here is information on how to do that:

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=151682,00.html

If he filed as married while he was single, he filed incorrectly and needs to amend the returns in question, using Form 1040X to change his filing status.

Answer 2

What was on his W-4 doesn't matter at this point, and that's the only thing his company would have been involved in or had paperwork on. You husband is the one who would have had to file his own tax return at the end of each year (really early the next year) - and what matters is what was on the actual return itself, not on the W-4. The W-4 only controls how much tax is withheld from paychecks - if too much or too little was withheld, that would have been straightened out when he filed his return.

If HE filed his return as married before you were, then he must file an amended return for each of the years this was done. Use form 1040X to file an amended return. You'll need copies of his original returns for those years to file the amended return(s). If he doesn't have them, he can get transcripts (free) from the IRS - they'd have all the info he'd need. To file as married, he'd have had to put his spouse's name and social security number on the return, and the spouse would have had to sign it, so it doesn't really sound like that's what happened.

If the IRS doesn't have copies, then it's likely that he never actually filed a return. Who is asking you for the copies? If he didn't file at the end of each year, then there are no copies to give, and he needs to get his info together for the 3 years and file them. If you need help with this, see a CPA.

Good luck.

Answer 3

First of all, the COMPANY didn't file your husband as anything.

During the first 24 hours of employment, he would have been asked to fill out a W4 which is his WITHHOLDINGS, and more than likely, this is what you're referring to. If HE put "married", then they took out less taxes during the year. HE fills out the form, HE signs it, and THEY take out taxes accordingly.

Now, with that being said, he can SIMPLY go back to Human resources (personnel office) and fill out a new one, stating he's married, 2 exemptions, married withholding at the higher single rate, whatever he desires...

Whatever his current withholdings are, they can be seen on his paystub, or at least on the last set of taxes you guys filed.

The withholdings, honestly, aren't something you can FIX, aside from filling out a new form, and having it change in the next paycheck or two.

There's no reason to redo any taxes, from what I see in your question. And nothing to fix that I haven't mentioned.

The IRS can also provide you with tax returns, for a small fee of course.

(maybe he WAS married the past 3 years, just not to you?)

Answer 4

!. Employers don't file tax returns of their employees. It appears that your husband has never filed his tax return.

2. You said that "employment file him as married for 3 years..." Are you talking about what was put on his W4 form? Employee fills form W4 and gives it to the employer. Based on the number of allowances (on W4) claimed by the employee, the employer withholds the taxes from the employee's paycheck."

3. Normally, when an employee gets his paycheck, he/she also gets a tax withholding statement. Now, did your husband get his pay in cash or by check? If he was paid in cash, may be taxes were never withheld or deposited in the government account.

4. Normally the person who completes your tax return is also required to sign it and keep a copy of it. He/she must give the copy to the taxpayer (you).

5. Now if you think that in your husband's case the returns were filed, the you can get the transcripts of the returns from the IRS. Normally, for most of the requirements your purpose is served if you ask IRS for Transcripts instead of your tax return. You can order a transcript by calling 1-800-829-1040, or using Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return. There is no fee for a transcript. Transcript will provide you the needed information.
Transcripts have most of the information from your tax return including information from W2, 1099.

Answer 5

Okay, since you posted this under US...

well, I just can't help but point out that his company has NOTHING to do with it. The company may take taxes out of his regular paychecks, based on how he filled out his W4 form; however, it was your husband's responsibility to actually FILE his taxes.

HE should have copies of his past tax returns. His company should have copies of the previous amounts they've taken out of his paycheck to put toward his taxes; however, that is NOT filing taxes.

So, you aren't really going to be able to blame this on his employer. If he's been filing his own taxes (as he's required to do every year), he should've noticed by now if they've been calculating his witholding amounts incorrectly (based on his marital status) when he was figuring his own taxes every year.

If he HASN'T been filing his own taxes, he really should do that as soon as possible. There are going to be penalties and, if the witholding has been done incorrectly, he's also likely to owe quite a bit already.

Answer 6

Employers ask employees to fill out tax forms, then based on those forms they withhold taxes from the pay based on tables provided from the IRS. Even if the company made a data entry error and withheld incorrectly as if he were married, all that would happen is that they would withhold too little taxes.

Your husband must have filed tax returns every year in April. What did he put on this tax forms? Married or single?

Anyway, Yes, you can re-do your taxes. And I don't think that your employer can have made that big a difference or have gotten you in trouble.

Answer 7

Husbands employment only subtracts the amount of money your husband said to take out...
When the husband filled out the 1040 to be sent to the IRS he was to put single... Your problem is with IRS.. Needs to dig out all the 1040 for the years that he said that you were married. See IRS in your city and have them refile. ... Not a big deal -- OK... Need to fix things... At the IRS office should be done in about 2 hours...

Answer 8

Everyone here has great suggestions.

Also, have your husband contact the IRS for copies of his tax returns for the years before he was married to you. This way you can actually see what, if anything, was filed with the IRS. Then there will be no speculation.