Can you get in trouble if you file your taxes as single but you are actually married?

Question

If the IRS finds out, would you be subject to owe anything? What would happen to someone that has done this for up to 15 years? He lives in Texas and for the last 5 years has worked in Oklahoma.

Answer 1

15 years!!!!  Yes, he can get into trouble.  Generally single people have higher deductions than married people so he will probably owe back taxes for all those years.  If they ever find out he will owe back taxes plus penalties.  I guess if they really want to teach him a lesson they can charge him with tax evasion and he could go to jail, but not sure if they would go to that extreme.  Also, I'm not really sure they can go back 15 years on the money he is owed so he may get away with the lower taxes he paid for many of those years.

Answer 2

He needs to file amended returns ASAP.  It is quite possible and even likely that he underpaid his tax.  Not only that he signed his tax returns under penalty of pergury, and has now perjured himself and comitted tax fraud.  Both criminal offesnses. He needs to take corrective action by filing amended returns immediately.  I have a good deal of information available on my website at eTaxrelief.com.

Christopher R. Jacquez,

President eTaxrelief.com

Answer 3

It's the same as married filing separately. Deduction wise you end up the same.

Answer 4

Yes, that's filing a false return.  You can be assessed back taxes plus interest and penalties.

Answer 5

No, that is a personal choice and perfectly legal, they know people do that all the time.

Answer 6

Yes, you can get in trouble if your intention was to defraud the government by claiming singe to get a lower rate or other benefit of filing single instead of married fling separate.  Remember, there is no statue for a fraudulent filed return. However, if it is a mistake then you need to file an amended returns for the open years (generally, the later of three years from the due date including extension, or date of filing) to correct the filling status.

Answer 7

A married person may file separately by checking the box for "married filing separately".  

A married person who checks the box for single may (1) owe the tax that they saved, (2) owe fines and/or penalties, and/or (3) be criminally prosecuted for tax fraud and face federal prison.

Answer 8

If a married person filed as single, and they had no dependents, in most cases they would owe the same tax as if they filed married filing separately.  There are a few exceptions related to retirement plans.

If the IRS found out, and there were additional taxes owed, then the taxpayer would have to pay those taxes plus penalties and interest.  If no taxes were owed, the IRS could in theory assess penalties for inaccuracy.



This is a case where the filing status is incorrect but not to the advantage of the taxpayer.  The case where a married person files as head of household, or single with dependent children, is fraudulent because the taxpayer is lying in order to pay less tax than he owes.

Answer 9

Yes.  He understated his income and when he pays it back it's subject to penalties and interest.

The MFS tax return has higher tax rates than single returns after you get past $64K of taxable income.  The tax law changes to reduce the marriage penalty were only about 5 years ago, it's certain he underpaid for 10 years.  A substantial underpayment in tax has a statute of 6 years and fraud is forever.

The MFS return can't claim the following benefits:

EIC, child and dependent care, adoption credit,,

no education credits or tuition deduction or student loan interest, cannot exclude savings bond interest, cannot rollover IRA money to a Roth, capital losses are limited to $1500, if spouse itemized, cannot use the standard deduction, if retired, must include social security benefits in income....

And after 3 years, you CANNOT amend it to MFJ.

I'm always amazed at the number of people who do this.