Discussion:Married filing separately and living apart

living apart for married filing separately?

The real question here is why is MFS being considered? taxea

it since he's living in the nursing home.

taxbilly

They are not considered living apart if the only reason he is not in the home is because he is in a nursing home. taxea

We don't know if he was placed in the nursing home or chose to move there voluntarily to get away from his wife's nagging. And the phrasing "absence may be considered temporary" leaves the obverse phrasing open, meaning it may also be considered nontemporary.

If one enters the discussion with the ironclad conclusion that "nursing home" equates to temporary separation no matter the circumstances, the reasons, or the duration, then one's mind is made up, and any arguments to the contrary are going to be deemed irrelevant no matter what they are. On the other hand, if one enters the discussion only assuming that "nursing home" probably equates to temporary separation, then we at least have a rebuttable presumption open to argument. And if you begin with a presumption that's rebuttable, then by definition you have to allow for the possibility that the presumption may indeed ultimately be rebutted.

I don't equate the phrase "My client's husband is receiving social security and was looking for a way not to pay taxes on it since he's living in the nursing home" to fraud. Why can't it be a tax minimizing strategy to which the client may or may not be entitled. At the very least, it's a legitimate question with a thus far unsettled answer. I don't dismiss the strategy out-of-hand, at least based on the limited facts available so far. If the guy has found a loophole and his facts allow him the benefit of that loophole, then so be it.

[*For Pete's sake, spare me the tired, threadbare litany that these are only pubs and not the Almighty Code. I am aware. They may not settle the issue, but at least they raise it. So far I haven't seen anything that settles it, but the pubs and the RIA reference are nibbling away at the presumption. I remain of the belief that it's a fact-specific case for which we simply don't have sufficient facts to come down one way or another.]

PS: I know I need to do a profile. I just don't have any credentials worth mentioning.

Having been personally acquainted with such situations, I would wonder how anyone could have made my spouse part of my household when she had little or no memory of its inhabitants, what it looked like or ability to participate in the life going on outside the home. Here is one of my more optimistic slants of what was happening in 2001: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/255628

Seems to be we could subdivide our board into not only CPAs, EAs and others in-between, but also into those who throw around the 'Fr' word at every chance and those who don't.