@wareboy77
if you file a joint return with your spouse, then you and your spouse are equally responsible for all the information in the tax return. Once the refund is paid into whatever bank account was specified, the IRS’s role is over. The IRS will not help you retrieve money after it has been deposited in the place where you told the IRS to deposit it.
A joint return is supposed to be signed by both spouses. With electronic filing an electronic signatures, it is possible for one spouse to file without informing the other spouse or getting their consent. However, it’s not clear how are you could have been living the past 11 years without knowing that your spouse was filing your joint tax returns. You could file an affidavit of fraud against your spouse with the IRS, alleging that you did not give permission to file a joint return. You could try and file a separate return, listing only your own income and deductions and claiming a separate refund. But this will not be accepted by the IRS because it is after the regular deadline, unless the IRS also accepts your accusation of fraud and opens an enforcement action against your spouse. This is not a step to take lightly.
In the situation where you believe your spouse has not been financially honest with you during the marriage, your only real remedy is marital counseling or a divorce attorney, and making financial arrangements during the divorce to account for any fraud or misbehavior that occurred during the marriage.The IRS won’t get involved in this kind of dispute. As I already mentioned, their position will be that if the refund was paid into the account as requested in the joint return, whatever happens after that is not their problem to fix.
