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Would income tax return filing fees be considered a tax liability on a divorce agreement

I posed this question in misc.legal.moderated and they said it was really more a tax question then a legal one and better posted here. Hope someone here can help.

On my friends divorce agreement it states that the tax refund that he and his now exwife filed jointly be dispursed with her getting 2/3rds and him the remaining 1/3. As sucky as it is giving her the majority of the refund it was the only way he could get her to sign the agreement. But thats not the issue. There is a clause in the stipulation pertaining to the disbursement of the tax refund that. The quote is below:

"If any additional tax liabilities or interest is accrued by no fault of either party then that sum is to be included in the final disbursement amounts".

The reason for this question is, my friend paid the filing fees for the taxes out of his pocket which amounted to $337. Can the tax return filing fees be considered a tax liability and therefore is he entitled to take the filing fees off the top as reimbursment before dividing up the remainder of the refund? Or will he simply have to eat it?

Thanks in advance, Adam

Reply to
20vtguy
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20vtguy wrote: Can the tax return filing fees be considered a tax liability.... ?

No, tax prep fees are not a tax.

But surely his attorney allowed for payment of tax prep fees when he/she addressed the tax refund issue in the settlement?

Reply to
paultry

No unfortunately the lawyer he used was an idiot and did not state it clearly in the agreement. But when I saw the clause I thought maybe it would apply to filing fees as well so thats why I posed the question. This was a messy divorce for him and he basically gave her everything in order to get her to agree to sign the agreement. She would not even accept the original offer of a 50/50 split of the refund and he had to counter and give hr 2/3 of it before she would finally agree. He was the sole income provider for her and her 4 kids, by 3 fathers I might add, for the 2 years they were married. She lived on public assistance her entire life until they married. He has no kids with her, thank God

Reply to
20vtguy

No, prep fees are not a tax liability.

The bigger question is why is he getting a large tax refund? This is also a good lesson in the value of competent attornies. People who learn from their misjudgements are happier than those who don't.

My best advice is to tell he that regardless of what he pay to get out of the marriage, in return he owns the future.

Dick

Reply to
Dick Adams

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