Today TaxMama hears from Lisa, who tells us: “I recently read your article regarding divorce and taxes on MarketWatch.com. You mentioned filing a Form 8888 to have refunds split and directly deposited. My husband has been out of permanent work since June. He has been drawing unemployment and doing odd jobs. My income is approximately $20,000 a year and barely covers my school and old debt. I am unable to contribute any money to cover the expenses he has incurred. We are planning on divorcing, but haven’t filed yet. If he is unwilling to file a Form 8888 with me for 2006, would I be better off filing as married separate, and risk paying taxes? Or should I file jointly with him and risk the chance of there being taxes due, or if there’s a refund, him taking it all?”
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Dear Lisa,
At $20,000 or so of income, your taxes will be pretty much the same if you file as married, separately or jointly. You won’t be paying extra – and won’t have to worry about how you get your hands on your own refund.
Try running the numbers on TurboTax’s Tax estimator (see the left-hand column)
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax_help/
However, for divorcing couples filing jointly because that does make a big difference in their tax liability, the split refund option is a major boon. You won’t have to worry about him stealing your refund, or her. One less thing to fight about. Just be very, very sure that you enter the bank account codes correctly.
And remember, you’ll find answers to lots of questions about divorce and other tax information, free. Where? At TaxMama.com
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