Does anyone know the tax consequences when a marriage is annulled
rather than terminated by divorce?

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved.

I'm familiar with the concept of "putative marriage" under state law -
when one of the spouses actually believes the marriage is valid, that
spouse is not penalized and the marriage is treated for most relevant (financial) purposes that it was valid.

But do you know if the IRS takes the same position? I haven't been
able to determine that. I found two Tax Court cases that tend to
support that, but those are both in reference to German law, and don't specifically decide this issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.


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Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

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On Friday, May 27, 2022 at 12:18:42 PM UTC-4, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

Does anyone know the tax consequences when a marriage is annulled
rather than terminated by divorce?

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved.

I'm familiar with the concept of "putative marriage" under state law -
when one of the spouses actually believes the marriage is valid, that
spouse is not penalized and the marriage is treated for most relevant (financial) purposes that it was valid.

But do you know if the IRS takes the same position? I haven't been
able to determine that. I found two Tax Court cases that tend to
support that, but those are both in reference to German law, and don't specifically decide this issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

--

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as single. This is discussed in Pub. 504.

Ira Smilovitz, EA
Leonia, NJ

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ira smilovitz <ira.smilovitz@gmail.com> wrote:

Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

Does anyone know the tax consequences when a marriage is annulled
rather than terminated by divorce?

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years,
but the marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having
already been married, and that marriage was never dissolved.

I'm familiar with the concept of "putative marriage" under state
law - when one of the spouses actually believes the marriage is
valid, that spouse is not penalized and the marriage is treated
for most relevant (financial) purposes that it was valid.

But do you know if the IRS takes the same position? I haven't
been able to determine that. I found two Tax Court cases that
tend to support that, but those are both in reference to German
law, and don't specifically decide this issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as
single. This is discussed in Pub. 504.

Thanks Ira - that's exactly what I needed.

--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

--
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<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
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<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
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On 5/27/22 11:38 AM, ira smilovitz wrote:

On Friday, May 27, 2022 at 12:18:42 PM UTC-4, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

Does anyone know the tax consequences when a marriage is annulled
rather than terminated by divorce?

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the
marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved.

I'm familiar with the concept of "putative marriage" under state law -
when one of the spouses actually believes the marriage is valid, that
spouse is not penalized and the marriage is treated for most relevant
(financial) purposes that it was valid.

But do you know if the IRS takes the same position? I haven't been
able to determine that. I found two Tax Court cases that tend to
support that, but those are both in reference to German law, and don't
specifically decide this issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.


--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

--

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as single. This is discussed in Pub. 504.

Ira Smilovitz, EA
Leonia, NJ

Revenue Ruling 76-255; 1976-2 C.B. 40. See Situation 1. Pub 504 matches
the ruling.

--
Alan

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According to ira smilovitz <ira.smilovitz@gmail.com>:

On Friday, May 27, 2022 at 12:18:42 PM UTC-4, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the
marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved. ...

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as single. This is
discussed in Pub. 504.

Would the "husband" be single or married filing separately? I'd think
the latter if he's married to someone else.

--
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John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

--
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"John Levine" <johnl@taugh.com> wrote:

ira smilovitz <ira.smilovitz@gmail.com>:

Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years,
but the marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having
already been married, and that marriage was never dissolved.
...

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my >>fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as
single. This is discussed in Pub. 504.

Would the "husband" be single or married filing separately? I'd
think the latter if he's married to someone else.

Yes, married filing separately seems to be the IRS position.
Annulment means the marriage never existed. So the couple have to go
back and file new returns to show the actual state of things (i.e.
not married to each other) for the open years.

--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

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"Stuart O. Bronstein" wrote in message news:XnsAEA45DFC55F20spamtraplexregiacom@130.133.4.11...

Does anyone know the tax consequences when a marriage is annulled
rather than terminated by divorce?

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the >marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved.

I'm familiar with the concept of "putative marriage" under state law -
when one of the spouses actually believes the marriage is valid, that
spouse is not penalized and the marriage is treated for most relevant >(financial) purposes that it was valid.

But do you know if the IRS takes the same position? I haven't been
able to determine that. I found two Tax Court cases that tend to
support that, but those are both in reference to German law, and don't >specifically decide this issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

The IRS does recognize common-law marriages, which is kind of what this is. That is, this couple did live together as husband and wife and held
themselves out to the community as married and in fact believed they were married. So by common-law definitions, I think they legally were married.

--

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"Rick" <rick@nospam.com> wrote:

The IRS does recognize common-law marriages, which is kind of what
this is. That is, this couple did live together as husband and
wife and held themselves out to the community as married and in
fact believed they were married. So by common-law definitions, I
think they legally were married.

Wow! There are so many problems with this.

First, yes, the IRS recognizes marriages that are valid under state
law. And there are a few (very few) states that have "common law"
marriages. So living together in those states may create a legal
marriage, which would be recognized not only by the IRS but
everywhere else.

But living together in other states does not create a "common law"
marriage. Living together in almost all the states does not mean the
couple are married.

But in this case the couple actually had a marriage ceremony. It was
invalid because the "husband" was (unknowingly to the wife) still
married to someone else. When the officiant asks if anyone knows of
any reason the couple can't be married, that's the reason they say
that - to determine whether one of the people is already married.

So even if the couple lived in a common law marriage state, they
would not have been married because the husband was married to
someone else. Even under common law marriage you can't be married to
more than one person at a time. And there is no such thing as common
law divorce - living apart does not terminate a marriage, even one
created in a common law marriage state.

--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

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According to Stuart O. Bronstein <spamtrap@lexregia.com>:

But in this case the couple actually had a marriage ceremony. It was
invalid because the "husband" was (unknowingly to the wife) still
married to someone else. ...

Here's an unhelpful thought experiment.

Let's say the happy couple went on an early honeymoon to Dubai and got
married there. The UAE follows Islamic law and allows a husband to
have four wives so the marriage would be legal there. Then they
come home.

Now what?

R's,
John
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John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

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On 5/27/2022 10:48 PM, John Levine wrote:

According to ira smilovitz <ira.smilovitz@gmail.com>:

On Friday, May 27, 2022 at 12:18:42 PM UTC-4, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the
marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved. ...

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as single. This is
discussed in Pub. 504.

Would the "husband" be single or married filing separately? I'd think
the latter if he's married to someone else.

From Publication 504: "On the amended return, you will change your
filing status to single or, if you meet certain requirements, head of household."

--
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On 5/27/2022 10:48 PM, John Levine wrote:

According to ira smilovitz <ira.smilovitz@gmail.com>:

On Friday, May 27, 2022 at 12:18:42 PM UTC-4, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

I'm looking at a situation where people were married for years, but the
marriage was actually invalid due to the husband having already been
married, and that marriage was never dissolved. ...

My understanding, but I don't have an authoritative citation at my fingertips, is that you need to amend all open years to file as single. This is
discussed in Pub. 504.

Would the "husband" be single or married filing separately? I'd think
the latter if he's married to someone else.

I had an earlier response that got things all mixed up. Please ignore
it. Here is another, hopefully less inept try:

It appears likely the bigamist husband would be "considered unmarried"
when evaluating head of household filing requirements. If he meets the
rest of HOH requirements, he may be able to file as HOH for one or more
of the open years. If he doesn't qualify as HOH, the filing status looks
like married filing separately (unless the previous spouse also agrees
to married filing jointly amended returns).

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"John Levine" <johnl@taugh.com> wrote:

Stuart O. Bronstein <spamtrap@lexregia.com>:

But in this case the couple actually had a marriage ceremony. It
was invalid because the "husband" was (unknowingly to the wife)
still married to someone else. ...

Here's an unhelpful thought experiment.

Let's say the happy couple went on an early honeymoon to Dubai and
got married there. The UAE follows Islamic law and allows a
husband to have four wives so the marriage would be legal there.
Then they come home.

Now what?

That's a very interesting question. Because generally when someone
visits from a country that allows multiple spouses, the US recognizes
those marriages as valid while the people are in the US.

But I suspect that the result would be a bit different if people from
the US, intending to return to the US, went somewhere just for the
purpose of entering into multiple marriages. In that case they'd
probably be considered valid in the country where the marriages took
place, but not in the US.

While they're not the same, see the three US Supreme Court cases
called Williams v. North Carolina. In that case a man and a woman,
each married to other people and residing in North Carolina, both
moved to Nevada. There they obtained divorces from their current
spouses and then married each other.

They stayed in Nevada for a number of years, but eventually moved
back to North Carolina, where they were arrested for bigamy. The
Court said that North Carolina didn't need to honor the Nevada
divorces because they did not provide for sufficient notice to the NC
spouses.

So the convictions were upheld. On the bright side, the case(s)
dragged on for so many years that by the time the final appeal ran
out, the couple had died and never ended up having to spend time in
jail.

--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

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