My spouse ran a cash-heavy business and I think income was hidden from our joint return. Does Form 8857 care whether I actually knew?
I am from Portugal and was not involved in my spouse's salon business except for signing our joint returns. The IRS is now asserting additional tax for unreported receipts. The proposed balance is around $33,000 before interest. I handled none of the bookkeeping and never saw the full merchant-account records.
My concern is that the IRS may assume I knew more than I really did because we were married and filed jointly. I want to understand how much the knowledge issue matters and whether abuse or financial control can affect that analysis if my spouse kept me out of the financial details.
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