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To reflect the foregoing,18
Appropriate orders will
18
Although we sympathize with petitioner's plight, we are
guided by the statement we made in Sonnenborn v. Commissioner, 57
T.C. 373, 380-381 (1971):
The filing of a joint return is a highly valuable
privilege to husband and wife since the resulting tax
liability is generally substantially less than the
combined taxes that would be due from both spouses if
they had filed separate returns. This circumstance
gives particular emphasis to the statutory rule that
liability with respect to tax is joint and several,
regardless of the source of the income or of the fact
that one spouse may be far less informed about the
contents of the return than the other, for both spouses
ordinarily benefit from the reduction in tax that
ensues by reason of the joint return. However, some
highly inequitable results were called to the attention
of Congress, particularly where a wife had been
divorced or separated or abandoned after the tax year,
where she was saddled with a disproportionately high
tax liability as a consequence of having filed a joint
return, where such liability grew out of income
attributable only to the husband, unknown to the wife,
and where she had not enjoyed any benefit therefrom.
It was in an effort to eliminate the unfairness of the
joint and several liability provisions in such
circumstances that section 6013(e) was enacted. To be
sure, section 6013(e) is not limited to precisely such
narrow situations. But it must be kept in mind that
Congress still regards joint and several liability as
an important adjunct to the privilege of filing joint
returns, and that if there is to be any relaxation of
that rule the taxpayer must comply with the carefully
detailed conditions set forth in section 6013(e). [Fn.
ref. omitted]
In the instant case, we are, of course, bound to apply the law
that Congress enacted. If the result we reach seems harsh, the
remedy must lie with Congress, which is the body that has the
power to relax the requirements for obtaining relief as an
innocent spouse.
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