Blog

We keep you up to date on the latest tax changes and news in the industry.

How Do You Qualify for Innocent Spouse Relief from IRS Tax Problems?

Few financial events are worse than a big tax bill with penalties from the IRS. If you are a spouse and you were unaware of potential errors or underreporting on your tax return, you may be eligible for innocent spouse relief. 

To qualify for innocent spouse relief, you must meet all three of the following conditions:

  1. You and your spouse filed jointly, and your tax bill was understated solely because of one or more errors that your spouse made. These errors, or willfully improper entries, only apply to income and deductions that belong to your spouse. They include improper deductions and credits, incorrectly reporting basis in property such as securities and business inventory, under-reporting income, or omitting items.

  2. You must establish that you didn't know your spouse did this and had no reason to know when you signed your tax return.

  3. Prove that considering the facts and circumstances surrounding your case, it wouldn't be fair to hold you responsible for the resulting underpayment. 

If your spouse is not transparent about finances with you, and you didn't find out about what they did until long after the tax return was filed, you're more likely to qualify for innocent spouse relief.

If the above scenario matches your personal circumstances, it might be time to get professional help. It is important that you put together a well-documented response when applying for innocent spouse relief. Contact this office to learn how we might be able to help resolve your tax issue.

Share this article...

Sign up for our newsletter.

Each month, we will send you a roundup of our latest blog content covering the tax and accounting tips & insights you need to know.

I confirm this is a service inquiry and not an advertising message or solicitation. By clicking “Submit”, I acknowledge and agree to the creation of an account and to the and .

We care about the protection of your data.


“We are always looking to grow our business. Should you have any clients, friends, business associates looking for high quality accounting services from a CPA firm, please have them contact us.”

This e-mail (including any attachments) is only for the exclusive use of the individual to whom it is addressed. The information contained hereinafter may be proprietary, confidential, privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, the reader is hereby put on notice that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If the reader has received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail and delete all copies of this e-mail and any attachments.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: In order to ensure compliance with IRS Circular 230, we must inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this transmission and any attachments hereto is not intended or written to be used and may not be used by any person for the purpose of (i) avoiding any penalty that may be imposed by the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.

Richards Group PC, CPA We love to chat!
Please feel free to ask a question, our Ai chat assistant would love to help.
Please fill out the form and our team will get back to you shortly The form was sent successfully