@Kristielynn wrote:
Thank yall so much for responses. I married my husband November 2016. We went to a tax person to do out taxes end of February to file 2016 taxes. He passes away march 2, 2017. In April I got the refund of about $1,200. In 2019 I filed my tax return and that’s when I started not getting my refund because of taxes me and my husband owed for that yr. I really don’t understand how we owed when I got a refund that yr. So every year since 2019 IRS takes my refund. I paid over $2000 so far I still owe $895. I did a penalty abatement few weeks ago. It took off $499. I have $420 in interest which leaves $895. So I been really looking into this because I filed my 2024 taxes and my refund is just enough to pay off what I owe. Which leaves me with nothing again. I greatly appreciate all the advice but still confused which form I have to fill out. And I’m also confused and not understanding the form for each year. So I have to fill out same form for every year
If you are not married now, injured spouse is not for you.
If you owe taxes from 2016 when you filed a joint return, and you are not married now, you still legally owe the taxes because that's what you agreed to when you filed a joint return.
For 2017 you should also have filed a joint return with your spouse (because that is allowed when your spouse dies in the middle of the year), unless you decided to file separately, but then someone would have to file a separate return for your spouse for their income from January-April. So likewise, you could owe from 2017 if you made errors or left things off, and filed a joint return.
If you think you should not pay the tax you owe because the reason you owe for 2016 is that your husband or your accountant was doing something wrong that they were hiding from you, that would be the time to request innocent spouse relief. It's too bad you don't understand the IRS adjustments. You can get your transcripts for 2016 and look them over, although you might need someone to help explain them to you.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript
You only file the innocent spouse form once. The IRS decides whether or not to reduce what you owe, and then you owe whatever you owe.
If you agree you owe the tax from the joint 2016 return because you agree there was a mistake made, you should probably just pay it off. You can do that online at any time.
www.irs.gov/payments
(When my mother was starting to get dementia, she left a pension off the my mom and dad's tax return. The IRS figured it out after a while and they owed significant back taxes. It was just an innocent mistake, but there was no arguing that they owed it, it was their legit tax bill, so they paid. If you could figure out why you owe for 2017--what the mistake was--that's where you should have started in 2019.)
