Switching Taxpayer and Spouse

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@JOFI wrote:

I agree it is irrelevant, but:

1) Married couples switch between filing Jointly and Separately in consecutive years, so merely switching Taxpayer and Spouse on a joint return is something the IRS can easily handle;

2) The client is requesting this because the husband typically makes estimated tax payments, and the IRS mishandled the payments last year because he is the Spouse on the return and his payments were made under his SSN, leading to threatening letters from the IRS on garnishing his wages because the IRS couldn't locate the payments (a situation that happened with multiple clients last year).  I completely understand his perspective here, and ultimately this is the call of the client.

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I think your #1 statement "something the IRS can easily handle" is directly contradicted by the reality of #2. 🙂  For whatever reason, the IRS has trouble now finding spousal money.  It's usually just a phone call to fix it (but that requires someone at the IRS to answer the phone.)

I normally don't do this but I would make an exception in this case.  I would advise the client that it's time consuming and prone to errors so there would be an additional $x charge.

One trick I learned this year for Drake that would probably apply for ProSeries.  Before you transfer from prior year, go mark the taxpayer deceased in prior year.  Then transfer and it should transfer all of the SP indicators to TP.  (I'd then go back and unmark them deceased in the 2020 file, just 'cause I don't like bad data floating around.)  That should at least do half the work for you.  The SP will become TP on the 2021 return so you only need to enter the former primary taxpayer's info.  Just a thought, may create as much work as it saves depending on how much data you have to enter.

Rick