Federal taxes - community property worksheet

[tsavvy]

Has anyone had a negative experience with the IRS due to not submitting the community property worksheet? This question only applies to PSers in community property states. DH and I do our taxes as married filing separately rather than joint returns. We both use TurboTax and this wasn't a problem in prior years. This year, TurboTax prompted each of us to complete the community property tax worksheet and to make community property adjustments. TT flagged it as a problem in the return when the worksheet was not completed. We would prefer not to complete it or submit it as we don't treat our income, investments, etc. as community property.

My google search did not yield anything definitive. I also skimmed Publication 555 and it sounds like community property laws can be disregarded if community income is not treated as community property and the other spouse is not notified of the amount of the income. While we generally know what the other makes, we don't review each others W-2s, tax statements, bank statements, etc.

Does anyone know of a compelling reason we should each complete the community property worksheet?

 

[mary poppins]

55 views and no responses. You might have better luck posting your question on fatwallet finance forum. Not sure if we're allowed to refer to other forums here. Apologies to mods if we're not.

 

[sonnyjane]

I apologize, I'm really good with taxes and do ours every year, but we are married and file jointly, so I haven't encountered this. Hope you figure it out!

 

[tsavvy]

Thanks for the responses. I hadn't thought of checking financial sites (thanks, mary poppins!) - apparently it is a new requirement, which is why it just popped up in Turbo Tax this year. Apparently, we do not have to comply if we don't communicate the amount of our income to one another. So, I deleted the community property form and filed my taxes. Keeping my fingers crossed that all will go well.