Rep. Subramanyam Pushes IRS to Fix Married Filing Jointly Issues

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Representative Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10) is pushing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to address issues married couples face when filing their taxes jointly.

"It doesn't make any sense that couples who file their taxes together every year need to keep the same person as the designated primary taxpayer or face consequences like long processing delays and errors. In extreme cases, the couple can face penalties or collection issues. All because they have mistakenly reordered their names on their tax filing or used the wrong person's credentials to pay their tax balance. There must be a better way," said Rep. Subramanyam.

"We look forward to developing solutions with the IRS to alleviate the questions, legal burdens, and stress faced by many married filing jointly taxpayers who inadvertently listed their names in a different order, or made a payment under the Social Security number of the person listed second on the form. It is crucial for the IRS to address this issue as quickly as possible to make the system work for taxpayers," said Pete Sepp, President of National Taxpayers Union.

Rep. Subramanyam recently wrote to the IRS laying out concerns brought to him by constituents and asking for clarification on why couples who file jointly continue to face these issues. When Married Filing Jointly (MFJ), both members of the couple submit their Social Security Numbers or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). But the IRS primarily associates the SSN of the primary taxpayer with the return, leading to long delays or processing errors when using the secondary taxpayer's credentials. The IRS also makes it difficult if not impossible for the secondary taxpayer to submit payment on behalf of the couple, even in instances where the primary taxpayer is deceased, and has even lost payments from secondary taxpayers.