Thousands of verified Experts are ready to answer your specific questions 24/7.
Satisfaction is guaranteed and you pay your Expert only if you are satisfied.
Just type your detailed question and click "Get an Answer."
In minutes you'll get a response from an Expert. You can always ask follow-up questions.
Happy with your answer? Just click "Accept" to pay your Expert.
My husband and I have no signed agreements. However, before I would efile our joint tax return, I had him send me an email stating his express consent for me to file our taxes jointly and as I saw fit. He further stated that he wanted the taxes to benefit my children and I. It is the only thing I have managed to get from him and had my step-mother obtain his email agreement for me, playing to his need to look agreeable to others. We are getting a refund. We claimed my two children. As he will not communicate with me, I am wondering how I need to handle the refund once I receive it. It will be direct deposited into my account. As he is constantly threatening me with foreclosure on our home, to destroy me in court or to have my children taken away, I would like to use the refund to get an apartment and obtain an attorney to protect myself and my children; however, I am concerned that I might be hurting myself in the long run, if he is entitled to a certain percent. We live in NC
State/Country: North Carolina
Hello hopeful, When you file a joint tax return, the IRS considers any refund which they issue to be the equal and joint property of both spouses. How you ultimately end up splitting that, or if one spouse ends up keeping the entire refund, the IRS would not get involved. In other words, it is up to you and your spouse to determine how the refund is used or split. If you end up keeping the entire refund, the very most your husband could do would be to file a civil suit against you, if he felt that he was entitled to a portion of that refund and was not willing to let you use the entire amount for yourself and your children. Whether or not he would be successful in such a civil suit is impossible to say, as it is no different than any other court case. The judge would weigh the facts and circumstances presented by both sides before making a ruling. Your best course of action would be to try and get another email or something in writing from him which stated that he did not expect to receive any of the refund. But even without such a document, it does not necessarily mean that he would file a suit against you or that he would win such a suit. Thank you hopeful, and let me know if you have more questions. I will be happy to help you with whatever I can.
Accountant
25+ years tax consulting. Specializing in returns for US citizens living abroad