- 7 - to believe that her reasoning for requesting relief was solely because intervenor would sometimes withdraw money from his IRA and give it directly to his individual children without consulting her or informing petitioner. Although petitioner may not have known the exact amount intervenor withdrew from his IRA during the year at issue, she readily admitted she knew that withdrawals were made and deposited into their joint bank account. Petitioner and intervenor testified that their 2001 Federal income tax return was prepared by a commercial tax preparation service, H&R Block. Both parties signed the return; therefore, petitioner had reason to know that the return she signed contained a substantial understatement. Thus, petitioner is not entitled to relief under section 6015(b). The second avenue for relief is section 6015(c). Section 6015(c) affords proportionate relief to the requesting spouse through allocation to the responsible party. Generally, this avenue of relief allows a spouse to elect to be treated as if a separate return had been filed. Rowe v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-325. To be eligible for relief under section 6015(c), the requesting spouse must no longer be married to, or must be legally separated from, the individual with whom the tax return was filed and must have elected the applicability of section 6015(c) not later than 2 years after the date on which collectionPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
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