Advice from Nashville's Financial Guru Dave Ramsey
Dave Says
By Dave Ramsey
Author of Financial Peace and The Total Money Makeover
9/6/2004
Wife can't get husband to file his
taxes
Dear Dave,
I'm writing on behalf of my sister. Her husband is self-employed and made
$13,000 last year. She made around $30,000. They have two children. Her
husband refuses to do his quarterly filings and pay his taxes. Then, when
tax time comes around, they have to file and pay a lot of money they don't
have. Would she be better off filing for herself as "married, filing
separately"?
Beth
Jacksonville, Fla.
Dear Beth,
As a tax answer, yes, she would be better off to file as "married, filing
separately" and just report her income. The danger here is that it almost
becomes a race to be the first to file in this situation. If one person
files and itemizes, taking all of the deductions for mortgage interest,
property taxes and charitable contributions, the other person also has to
itemize on their taxes and gets to deduct a big, fat zero.
They cannot take the standard deduction and itemize - you must do one or the
other - and they can't both take the same deductions if they file
separately. Since she has the higher income, it would make sense for her to
take those deductions.
As I said, that's the correct tax answer, but it's a bad marriage answer.
He's acting like he's out on his own; and if she starts filing this way
she'll be acting like she's out on her own. Then, all of a sudden, they're
planning the divorce because they've already separated all of this stuff. I
think they should call a marriage counselor and a pastor, sit down and
address these issues. Then they could file together and clean up the mess
together for his stupidity. And then there will be a day when he has to help
clean up her stupidity because that's just a part of marriage.
Dave
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