To all you practitioners in a CP state: What do you do when a client who lives with his spouse, doesn't have any pre or post nuptial agreement nor any written agreement relating to separate property or separate income, wants to file as married separate and has no idea what his spouse's income is? And.... says his spouse filed as married separate. As some CP states have different laws... I'm in New Mexico.
I think the "Community Property Laws Disregarded" section of Pub 555 might have some bearing on this. I would err in favor of filing a timely MFS return with all the taxpayer's income reported over not filing at all due to missing community income information, unless there's another choice I'm missing here.
-Mark Bole
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