Just the other day Genesis 2:24 featured in this my blog; see my blogpost “‘One Flesh,” Two Parties,” 3/18/25. And here it is again, Gina Jaha, T. C. Memo. 2025-26, filed 3/25/25, although the main event is hubby Bob Anderson’s trust-and-controlled-corporation cash siphon, which you can read for yourself.

Gina and Bob hadn’t filed for six (count ’em, six) years, of which five are at issue via SFRs. The SND resulting therefrom treated Bob and Gina as MFS. At Exam, their trusty CPA (more about him later) tendered the RA 1040 MFJs for three of said years at issue, but the RA never filed them with the Service Center.

Bob and Gina petition their MFS status, claiming they should be MFJ.

Judge Tamara W. Ashford: “Married taxpayers generally may elect to file a joint return for a taxable year although their right to do so may be limited after either spouse has filed a separate return. See §6013(a) and (b). After the filing of a separate return, a joint filing status election is generally prohibited if either spouse has timely filed a petition for redetermination of a deficiency. § 6013(b)(2)(B). Nevertheless, where, as here, the return electing separate filing status is an SFR filed by the IRS, the taxpayer may still elect joint filing status by filing a joint return with his or her spouse before the case is submitted for decision.” T. C. Memo. 2025-26, at p. 7.

Except.

“A return is deemed filed only if it has been submitted in the manner specified by regulation, or if it is at least eventually received by the appropriate person or office. Individual income tax returns generally must be filed with an assigned person in the taxpayer’s local IRS office or with a designated service center. Treas. Reg. § 1.6091-2(a)(1), (c), (d). Submitting a return to an IRS employee who has not been assigned to receive it, such as a revenue agent or respondent’s counsel, is generally insufficient.

“The record fails to establish that petitioners properly elected joint filing status. No party contends that petitioners filed their returns for the years at issue in the manner specified by regulation, that any of the IRS’s employees forwarded them to the appropriate person or office for filing, or that the IRS actually filed any of the returns.” T. C. Memo. 2025-26, at p. 8. (Citation omitted).

Bob’s and Gina’s trusty CPA may have been here before; see my blogpost “An Accurate Prediction,” 3/13/24.