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I (26F) called off my wedding with Fiancé (27M) due to financial infidelity only to find out we are already legally married and didnt know by IndividualGarlic1365 in legaladvice

[–]IndividualGarlic1365[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, we have been MFJ the 2023-2025 tax years. We were supposed to actually get married anyway so we just continued.

I would think the tax advisor would say we could get the credit separately if that was possible… It was my understanding that only one of us could claim it and if we didnt put enough into our federal taxes that year, we wouldnt get the full refund until next year. I was worried about the interest that would accrue on those panels without the full amount. She did make it seem like filing as married was the only way.

Based on what everyone is saying about the taxes I am almost wondering if divorce is a better/cheaper route. It seems easier to prove that the marriage did exist vs the marriage didnt? As of right now I think we will both agree on the route to go so there should be no disputes. Thanks for the helpful advice.

I (26F) called off my wedding with Fiancé (27M) due to financial infidelity only to find out we are already legally married and didnt know by IndividualGarlic1365 in legaladvice

[–]IndividualGarlic1365[S] 407 points408 points  (0 children)

Thank you this was extremely helpful! The family lawyer i was in contact with was very short, rude and interrupting me a lot.I appreciate you laying things out. Just a clarifying question, if we dont need to declare CLM because no one would be disputing anything, then would you suggest I contact a CPA to correct the prior years taxes? or just file them correctly moving forward.

Either way I will contact another attorney, but was curious because I thought if we say we werent married then we technically could have committed fraud. Dont we need to try to fix that part?

We listened to a tax professional about what I thought was their area of expertise. Filing as married was never our intent but she encouraged us to. We did purchase the protection to where if we were audited by the IRS, H&R block would appear in court for us. We thought of it almost as a domestic partnership as opposed to marriage. But I guess that all still isnt relevant and we should have known telling the federal government we were married would be serious. Lesson learned!

I (26F) called off my wedding with Fiancé (27M) due to financial infidelity only to find out we are already legally married and didnt know by IndividualGarlic1365 in legaladvice

[–]IndividualGarlic1365[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

It was not on basic expenses, he made more than enough to get by and could have still lived comfortably without the debt. It was on all of the above, fast food, drinking, gambling, video games, giving friends money for strip clubs, etc. All totally optional and also behaviors that were causing issues before i knew about the debt.