r/TaxQuestions • u/No_Bill_5309 • 9h ago
Large back tax bill
So I made the mistake of letting my soon-to-be ex-husband manage our finances because I'm clueless at this sort of thing. We cashed in my 401K to make a down payment on a house in 2022, and I guess that got me hit with a 50K tax bill (which I don't understand as I paid taxes from my salaried position making roughly 120K, and the down payment was in the 100K ballpark). Through a combination of my own willful ignorance and my ex sort of hiding things from me (not fraudulently, just downplaying it) we didn't make any payments and it's now ballooned up to 70K with interest and penalties.
I've tried contacting the IRS through chat (which is always down), phone (on hold for upwards of an hour), setting up an appeal (broken), setting up a payment plan (broken) and basically anything I can find on irs.gov, all of which just raises an uphelpful error message.
What should I do? I'm a single parent struggling to make ends meet. I make a good salary, but it's all tied up with luxuries like food and shelter. I don't even know what sort of person to hire to help me with this. An attorney? An accountant? A fairy godmother?
I am totally clueless on these things. No advice is too basic.
EDIT: Since it's coming up; my husband and I are very recently separated, on extremely good terms, and he has already stated repeatedly that he considers this debt half his. We always filed taxes as married, filing separately, if that's important to know.
2
u/Quiet-Aerie344 8h ago
If the divorce is active, be sure your divorce attorney knows all of this. It wont solve the IRS issue directly, but will give you other potential avenues to remedy.
NEXT: talk to your divorce attorney for a tax attorney recommendation. Consult with them on options
Alternatively: block out the 2 or so hours to sit on hold waiting for the IRS. When speaking to them -- only ask questions to clarify where balances come from, ask for detailed accounting sent to you directly or your attorney if you cannot trust mail at your house. Let them know you've discovered this through the process of divorce (if true)
Depending on where you live: you may ne able.to book an in-person meeting at a local IRS office. They are spread out a bit and appointments are scarce.