Please help me! My ex filed tax forging my signature

[user19000 18]

Update on my tax return case:

I called the IRS this morning and was told that a refund had gone out. That means they accepted my ex'es fraudulent married filing jointly return, despite my married filing separately return, which they received first, and my timely response to their so-called 31C letter about me not filing jointly with anyone or giving anyone my permission to file on my behalf.

I kept asking the phone operator if there was anything I could do about this and I told her it was so unfair for me. In response she asked me, "you didn't have any income why did you file? You're not going to get any refund anyway. Why would yo be concerned?" And she told me that this is a civil matter, the IRS won't get involved, and that I could hire an attorney if I wanted to.

I'm apparently not happy about this because:

1. I can't afford an attorney, and why would I have to pay for an attorney for something fraudulent my ex husband did to cheat the IRS?

2. I am going to go to school in California. I have been living here long enough to be an in-state student by the time the semester starts. But in order to prove my residency I will have to summit my tax return transcript, with the address in California. Now they accepted his return, the transcript I will get will have his address in Pennsylvania!

What to do? What to do?

Edited May 22, 2014 by user19000

[belinda63 3,038]

Well first of all any refund he receives fraudulently is between him and the IRS, nothing you can do about it.

Order your tax transcript. I have hear rumor you can download it online. If they only have the married filing jointly and you can't access your MFS. return then you call the IRS and raise holy hell. You have to remember the people who man those phone lines are just people hired off the street reading a script. Worse comes to worse and you get no resolution by phone you send a letter to the IRS office and the IRS ombudsman complaining your tax return was never processed. Which it wouldn't have been since you filed MFS and never agreed to MFJ. Make some waves and it will get fixed.

[user19000 18]

The refund he got is between him and the IRS but it affects me too, Belinda. If they don't fix it, his income is mine too! With his huge income on my profile, I can't get a student loan, which I will need for my education.

Yes, the lady answering phone told me she pulled up my tax return transcript and only saw the married filing jointly one.

The burden of clearing my name, involving the ombudsman, borrowing people's phone to make phone calls (I don't have one) is just about to break me.

Thank you so much for your prompt response. I will do as you suggested.

Edited May 22, 2014 by user19000

[belinda63 3,038]

You should first, before panicking, get a copy of your tax transcript. This will clear up if the IRS accepted your MFS return. Please verify the information that your MFS was rejected before you panic. If you obtain a transcript of your MFS return all is good and nothing else is required.

Only if they do not have a transcript for your MFS return should you begin to make waves.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

Order your tax transcript. I have hear rumor you can download it online.

You can get it instantly now, yes.

[user19000 18]

Thank you Avery Cates.

I have another update. Will post tomorrow.

[user19000 18]

I was composing a long post on what I have been doing following up on this but I got too tired and disgusted and deleted it.

I contacted the IRS and was told that a refund had gone out to my ex. I would have to send a police report together with all my personal documents to prove that I didn't file jointly with my ex, or I could hire an attorney to sue my ex in a civil court.

I walked twice to the police station, which is 3.5 miles from home, so 14 miles totally, to and back and then to and back. Both times I was told to come home. First time they were changing shifts or something like that and they didn't know when someone could see me. Second time, same thing. But this time they said they would send somebody to my home.

Two young officers came about two hours later. Their English was very bad, I didn't speak Spanish and they didn't speak my mother tongue so communication was kind of difficult. After a while they said they didn't know anything about tax, they would have to have their deputy dealing with my case. They left.

A while later, another officer came, whose native language was also Spanish while his English was broken. (In this city 62% of the population are Asian, and 34% are Hispanic.)

I tried to explain the situation to him over and over. Finally he said, "but you were married then, so he had the right to file as married."

I said, "Yes, he had to file as married, but not jointly. Because I didn't file with him." The officer kept saying that my ex had the right to file as married, which after some time irritated me.

I said, "do you know what "jointly" means?" It means JOINTLY! It means both parties, which are my ex and I, had to agree to do it together. I didn't agree. We didn't even talk."

The officer then asked how much the refund was. I said I didn't know. My ex filed his return fraudulently and got the refund. I had no knowledge about his action until the IRS contacted me. How was I supposed to know how much he got? He never shared his finances with me, even when we were married, let alone now.

Then the officer said, "But you didn't work and didn't have income. Why did you file?"

I said, "I had reasons to file. And even if I hadn't had a reason to I could still have filed. Whether I filed or not doesn't matter. It doesn't give him the right to file jointly without my permission."

The officer asked again, "But you didn't lose any money. What do you want to report about?"

I said, "It's not about the money I lost or didn't lose. it's about my identity which was used for a fraudulent purpose, which is the whole point. And more, my ex filing jointly causes me trouble, because now I can't prove my real income and residency in this state for my education."

He said, "What do you want me to do?"

I said, "I'm reporting to you as a police officer about something illegal someone did to me."

He said, "I don't know. I don't think he did anything wrong."

To be honest, at that point I just wanted to bang my head against the wall and die.

I almost cried.

Then he said, "I've never come across this before."

I said, "You having not come across it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist and doesn't mean what my ex did was legal."

Then he said he would have to call his detective. And he went to the gate to make the call.

A while later he came back and told me he would go back to the station and get me the report number but I would have to pay $25 for a copy of the report, which would be available in about 10 days.

I now don't know what to expect. I don't know what he has or is going to put down in the report. His English and knowledge and opinion on the matter was worrisome and our conversation was not recorded.

Never expected to go through all this.

Edited May 24, 2014 by user19000

[belinda63 3,038]

Don't focus on the refund as this is irrelevant at this time. None of that money would have gone to you anyway since you didn't work. You need to go online to http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript and obtain a copy of your tax transcript as I advised several days ago. When you have done this report back as to the filing status.

Edited May 24, 2014 by belinda63

[user19000 18]

Thank you, Belinda.

No, I didn't focus on the refund, I know better than to care about his money. But the police officer thought that was the whole point and if I didn't expect a refund then he didn't see any point in me reporting the incident.

The reason I mentioned the refund is that the IRS lady told me the refund had gone out. The whole deal was over. His return was accepted, mine wasn't. The letter I got from the IRS about two weeks ago also states: "If there is a refund due, it will be held until resolution of this matter." My understanding of that is, "this matter" has been solved, in the way that baffles me.

[belinda63 3,038]

Go online and order your tax transcript rather than guessing.

[user19000 18]

Yes, I will do that, Belinda. Thank you.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

You need to call the police department and speak to a supervisor and get that sorted out. Explain to him that you had difficulty getting his officers to get the report done and the IRS told you to do this. You were the victim of a crime and you shouldn't have to pay for a copy - I would ask for a fee waiver or get around that somehow.

IMO, they would have been more sympathetic if you told them why you needed it - because you need financial aid for school and you are so poor right now that you have to walk everywhere *cue tears*, you get it.

[user19000 18]

Thank you, N-o-l-a.

I think it's extremely unfair that I have to go through all this while it's none of my fault but to tell the police that I'm too poor might be something I'm not capable of doing.

Around here welfare benefits have been badly abused. It's hard to tell whether someone's really in need or they're just asking for a handout because they can.

I can't help feeling angry!

[belinda63 3,038]

So you are going to report an identity theft that you don't even know if it happened? Did you get your tax transcript yet?

[leilabird 18]

I would take him to the court and file a law suit. It happened to me. I sued him. Just take him to the court.