Taxes - ex Asked to File Jointly

[formylilgirl]

My ex and I finalized our agreement in August, and it is still sitting in a pile of paperwork on the judges desk waiting to be signed and finalized. So.. we finalized our agreement out of court, and are waiting for the judge to sign it. Yes.. its been 6+ months. Does it normally take this long??

Anyhow, the ex and I are on speaking terms, mainly texts and emails. We went from parallel parenting to now actively discussing our D5's activities, schedule etc. I went to file 2011 taxes separately, and found out I owe a $7K bill to the tax man, so much for that beach vacation.. The ex just sent me a text asking to consider filing jointly. A few things came to mind, how this could affect our CS arraignment, and what type of commitment I need from her? My fear is that she could suddenly change her mind, etc.

So, any thoughts on how to proceed here? I can pay the tax bill, but I am not sure if I should take her seriously, what I should look out for, etc? thanks.

[lohe]

Have you considered the fact that filing jointly might actually lower your tax bill?

Take a look at the numbers and if it will save you both money, just do it.

You're not legally married, you can legally file jointly.

Really, you could do worse than having her think she owes you a favor!

[Fatheroffour]

how this could affect our CS arraignment, and what type of commitment I need from her?

It shouldn't.

Her signature on the tax forms should be commitment enough.

[kidsdadtexas]

if she owes taxes also then you are jointly liable for each others tax liablilty. If filed separately then each is liable of its own tax liablity

[formylilgirl]

it will likely reduce my bill. after everything is finalized, we will share the child tax benefit by alternating who gets to claim the child ever other year. I want to use my accountant to do the joint filing, and I offered to pay his fee if we can use him.

[C3156]

I have found that being able to co-parent with the ex makes for a much nicer existence. We got along well enough to do joint taxes till the divorce was final (2 years) which saved quite a bit. Being able to share the child deduction is a bonus now that we are down the road a ways. If your ex is agreeable, I would go for the joint filing. As long as you are still married on December 31 of the tax year in question, you are good.

[kmich91262]

If the judge hasn't signed the final paperwork, if I'm not mistaken you are still considered married. The reason why I state still considered married, your divorce isn't final until the Courts put their John Hancock on the paperwork. Just food for thought.

[TXex's]

A little late on this one but will chime in as my situation was very similar. Our divorce was final on January 11th last year so for simplicity and maximizing the return we filed our 2010 return jointly (even though we were legally divorced at the time we actually filed the return). We agreed going into it that we would evenly share any loss or gain. The more that you can agree on in general the better off you will both be when it comes to cooperative parenting.

[formylilgirl]

I agree, we ran the numbers with my accountant and it knocked us into a higher tax bracket and there was no difference in what I would owe. at least she offered, I was impressed