# Lost Retirement



## americandream1 (Jan 11, 2015)

I just found out my ex wife who was CPA in the US, did not file taxes as a joint couple with a child although we lived together in California for 15 years married in our own properties who were in both names and had the same bank accounts. She divorced me 12 years ago. She filed herself as a single woman with a child planning for her divorce to get the child and the whole retirement so I would not share her retirement with her and not have the child either. I have not been able to connect with the child and now I realise from an IRS letter that although I am in the retirement age I am not qualified to any kind of retirement in the US. What should I do. Report her directly to IRS, take legal action or both.


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## _shel (Mar 2, 2014)

Moved this to the america board, think you'll get more appropriate answers here.


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

I'm a little confused here, so perhaps you can clarify.

With respect to her IRS tax filings, she was legally permitted to file "Married Filing Separately." It sounds as if you didn't file tax returns during that period. If your income did not meet the filing thresholds for filing then that's fine, you had no obligation to file.

If she filed "Single" while married to you then she committed tax fraud, _but it's her tax fraud_ with whatever penalties she incurs.

As for retirement, I'm not exactly sure how that relates to tax filings, but I'll take a couple guesses. With respect to U.S. Social Security retirement benefits, you would qualify on your own for some level of benefits if you (under your own Social Security Number) made nontrivial contributions within any 10 different calendar years (or as few as 2 if you can count contributions to another country's system that has a social security treaty with the U.S.) That's not contributing for 10 (or 2) years -- it's nontrivial contributions _within_ any 10 different (or 2 different) calendar years.

You divorced 12 years ago, so presumably you've had a great deal of time to qualify for some level of Social Security retirement benefits on your own, even without treaty help.

You make contributions to the U.S. Social Security system based on your earned income from work: wages, salaries, tips, etc. (Passive income doesn't count -- rental income, for example.) If you worked for an employer then your employer should have deducted Social Security (and Medicare) contributions directly from your paycheck. If you were self-employed then you should have filed a tax return (jointly or separately) and paid the Self-Employment Tax to make those contributions.

Under the U.S. tax code you, not your wife/ex-wife, had/have legal responsibility for _your own_ tax filing, either separately or jointly. If your ex-wife didn't help you file that's not nice perhaps, but that fact doesn't relieve you of your own tax filing obligations (if you had them). And, as mentioned, if she committed tax fraud that's her fraud only as long as you didn't participate in the fraud, in a joint filing for example.

It's possible she made contributions to her own U.S. tax-advantaged retirement account such as a Traditional IRA or Roth IRA. In many states, especially community property states, those assets would be considered marital assets during divorce proceedings -- assuming the divorce court knows about them. If they don't, it would be in your interest (through your attorney presumably) to notify the court.

Back to U.S. Social Security. There are also U.S. Social Security spousal benefits. If you do not qualify for U.S. Social Security retirement benefits on your own, or even if you do but the benefit is relatively low, you may be eligible to receive 50% of your spouse's retirement benefit no matter when she decides to collect her own benefits. For example, let's suppose when your ex-spouse reaches age 67 you are age 64. You could start collecting benefits from that point in time (your age 64) amounting to 50% of whatever your spouse's retirement benefit would be at age 67....

....Except there are conditions related to divorce that you should be aware of. Here they are:

1. Your marriage must have lasted 10 years or longer;
2. You do not remarry (it doesn't matter if she remarried);
3. You are age 62 or older when you start collecting (may be prudent to wait until your ex turns 67);
4. You don't qualify for an equal or higher benefit based on your own contributions;
5. Your ex-spouse is entitled to her own Social Security retirement or disability benefits.

If she committed tax fraud (e.g. filed "Single" instead of "Married") that shouldn't matter for these purposes. As long as she has her own Social Security contributions in her earnings history (which would be in her own self interest for her own benefits), and as long as you can demonstrate you meet those requirements (marriage certificate, etc.), you should be able to collect a (divorced) spousal benefit. Condition #2 is very hard for many people, though.

I'll stop there for now. Perhaps you can elaborate a bit on the situation, but in the meantime I hope that background information was helpful.


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Anticipating another couple possible dimensions to your questions....

If she qualifies for a private pension of some kind -- from the accounting firm she worked for, for example -- then her pension normally would also be considered a marital asset, at least in part, for consideration during divorce proceedings. Your attorney would presumably have asked for a share of that future pension in court, and the court approves, denies, or modifies that request in the divorce judgment. If she then absconds with the pension funds somehow you can try to seek relief in court for violation of the judgment, usually by ordering the pension administrator to make correct payments directly to you (and the rest to your ex-wife).

If she committed fraud and failed to make proper Social Security contributions from her income from work, and if her fraud is affecting your potential spousal benefit, then it would almost certainly be in your interest to report that crime. My understanding is there is no effective statute of limitations on Social Security-related fraud, though I could be mistaken. This form of fraud would also harm her, likely denying her Social Security benefits, so I assume she didn't do that. But I mention the possibility for completeness.

Child custody and visitation are determined (and sometimes redetermined) in family court. If the court awarded her sole custody with no visitation, that's pretty much that unless the facts and circumstances change or unless a higher court overrules the lower court.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

Why would IRS make statements about retirement benefits?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I have a friend in the US who is in the process of claiming her SS benefits through her ex-husband. She just recently told me that she contacted the local SS office and found the folks there to be very helpful as far as making her claim. Yes, there is a bunch of paperwork she has to provide (certified marriage and divorce certificates, etc.) - but basically it sounds as if you should contact the SS offices once you get to the US and see what they advise you to do. (And no, they don't seem to ask for any sort of income tax evidence on your part to make the claim.)
Cheers,
Bev


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## americandream1 (Jan 11, 2015)

Dear BBCWatcher and Bevdegorges Thank you very Much 
Below is a short history of what happened as BBCWatcher requested more details
Thank you and I appreciate your explanation. To explain further I was 22 and she was 17 when we met and she was from South East Asia and she wanted to be educated and told me stories of being neglected by her parents totally and how much her mother hate her and has been brought up by someone called numer7 . And we promised each other to stay together to become a family. I pay for her education and she will look after me and our children for ever.
And suddenly after a short while I got shocked that she was going to marry tomorrow with a gay friend of mine who was much older and she said she had to get married to him and no more explanation and she insisted it’s all innocent and I must be in the ceremony because she does not want to lose her beautiful friendship with me. So I kept my contact. Very shortly she came back with divorce papers. (I have a copy of that marriage certificate). And she really wanted to live with me as she did not know he is gay. Many years later after I married her I found out she married him for a passport and now I believe money too. Because with her passport she could not stay in the UK and at the time I had no money and my passport was not British.
I worked in a kitchen and brought food from the kitchen for her and all my money went for her education and rent and then I bought a flat with 5% down that became double and I used the extra ordinary booming property market in London at the time and made a lot of money.
And never we got any money or news from her parents until she became a charted accountant and suddenly parents appeared for one day and left. And I noticed they don’t have such a bad relationship with each other as claimed before. Then we went to the U.S.A because I encouraged her to carry on with her education , so she wanted to go to America to get her C.P.A and persuaded me to sell my properties that I had managed to buy and 3 times she had 3 abortions because she said she has no time for having children.
After 13 years in London we went to Los Angeles for her to get her CPA as well as the charted she had from the UK . And also I would be near my brother who lives in Los Angeles. And also I wanted to try to develop my theatre carrier which had developed in London. She insisted we get married and she was pregnant again for the fourth time. This time I insisted to keep my child .I bought 4 properties with the money I brought from London and automatically I had to put her name on the properties. The arrangement was that I make enough money for the family and with her proposal I agreed to and I paid all the costs for a daily life of a family, 2 cars and whatever and she invest her salary for our investment .  And again her parents appeared but would avoid me an bought her expensive gifts such as £5000 Rolex watch. And they would meet ver y often without me but she would not allow I take my son to see my brother and her excuse was my brother has a bad character and the weather where he is is not good for our son and even once the only time that I managed to invite my brother or anybody else she would ask them to leave and I thought she had mentally become sick and also had become very unkind to me and my few friends I had. At this time I tried and insisted to get help from marriage consultant and psychologist and I made appointment with them but they said they cannot do anything until she wants to and every time I discussed this with her she refused to hear it.
By this time the cost of living went up and I insisted that she should put some help towards the living especially when I noticed that the cost of the mortgages had gone up. She was doing different investments and our taxes as she was our accountant like always and I really had no idea what was going on financially and never would believe she would do anything wrong after all that support from me anything would happen. .And for two years I insisted and she agreed to add 10% of her income (she claimed) to the budget of the house but then she stopped after 2 years. By this time it was 1995/96 and she found a job in the Netherlands and I had to follow her.
And I had to go forth and back to manage our 4 properties and eventually I noticed that the rent would not pay the mortgages and I had very little income and no other money. 3 properties went for forclosure and one was sold at the price we had bought it and we went to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands the mother appeared again and some ne told me she has investment in Netherlands and Canada which I believe is my money. Since I was worried my retirement as I had lost everything and she would not reveal to me what she had been doing with our money and I had no idea how much money she makes and I believe she would not have separated from me as she always played a very vulnerable person and I always wanted to stay with my wife and look after het as I believe she got mentally sick. So I insisted we should have a private pension account which I would understand too and she agreed to that and I insisted that my name would be on our private bank account too with one account was created in both names. So she created a private account and she put approximately 5000 Euro a month in that account. I have no idea of any other accounts she had. And she allowed me to invest this money in our name. And at the same time I created a stock share account for my son with the money he got from the government as any other children do in the Netherlands and I bought a number of stocks from different fortune 500 companies and they added up to a few thousands as I was trying to cheat my son to learn the investment in tangible assets.
In the meantime I looked for a job, again in the performing art and it was far more difficult in the Netherlands because of the language and suddenly my wife and her mother became very kind to me and her mother suggested why do you not go to London to work and in the weekend you come back to the family and I fell for that and went to London. Every weekend I came back with a handful of presents for my family and my life was very loving, picking me up from the airport and I thought all the problems had been solved but the words I love you would not drop from her lips.
Then in London I got a court order to go to the Netherlands in 10 day’s time to hearing the divorce which was a shock of my life and I had a voicemail message from my wife that we are going on holiday because the son has lost the key to the house and the locksmith cannot open it so don’t come here because you won’t be able to get into it. I immediately went to the Netherlands trying to find a lawyer but no lawyer wanted my case. They said she has been filing preparing this divorce from 6 years ago that was when my son was 6 years old and we came to the Netherlands. Now I know she did that because she was waiting for my son to turn 12 years to get automatic custody for the child and the grandmother was around to brainwash the child as it is very common for the Chinese to separate the father from the son and create closeness from the grandparents to the child to create financial security to the mother and grandmother. Every lawyer said they would a minimum to work 6 months on those files. And eventually I got a lawyer from the government who was almost fresh from the college and he just acted as a representative in the court. By this time I noticed all the money had been cashed by her three months before the divorce. The private pension that I had created I phoned them and they told me that she sold it 3 months before and my sons stock account was sold too and there was no money left in the bank.
I went to the house and I saw all the files, all the pictures, any documents had gone and I had no access to any documents or pictures, not even bank statements. The only memory from the past are a few photos I have from my son.
One of the senior officers from the local police station wanted to talk to me and put a thick file in front of me and said your wife has been trying to bad mouth you and we have been investigating and saw it is not true and from experience, welcome this divorce. She is a very dangerous women or she is out of her mind. 
In the court my lawyer translated to me that she has a very powerful international solicitors firm behind her who cover Netherlands and US and in the court 3 of them were apparent all the time, much older than my lawyer and really dominated the court and my lawyer alone was conducting me but she had her own translator as my solicitor had told me she had requested that the whole court would be in Dutch so I would not understand it and also the finance goes only three months back and the court had agreed with that as well. And since she has a very persuasive gentle kind highly educated character she can manage to make everybody believe in what she says and because of that she managed to get a few character witnesses from some people who were rather silly which had no effect in the court. And with all these lawyers and evidence and so on she demanded for the full custody of the child. The three judges decided that I get 1650 Euro for 12 years a months and I also get my son 1 day a week. She paid for a couple of months and after that she went to court to claim she has no job and the court stopped the payment. And she never allowed me to see my child either and to this day he refuses to speak to me at the age of 25. By that time I was totally broke and could not even pay the solicitors fee of 6000 Euro and I did not know what to do next until now when I received a letter from the IRS that I do not have a retirement plan, see attachment.
And if I got mim 1650 a mouth it would be EU 237,600 buy now and i/2 our one property easily EU250,000 together mim EU500,000


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Let's just stipulate you've had a lot of bad luck.

I'm not sure what IRS letter you're referring to. I don't know what pension-related letter they would even send.

The past is past. Going forward, I'd recommend checking to see what U.S. Social Security retirement benefits, if any, you qualify for. You mentioned you lived in (at least) the U.K., the U.S., and the Netherlands. That's great, because the U.S. has social security treaties with both the Netherlands and the U.K. Consequently even if you didn't contribute to the U.S. system for enough years the U.S. can include your contribution histories in the U.K. and in the Netherlands to try to get you qualified for U.S. benefits. (That also works in the other 2 countries. Potentially you might even be able to collect some level of retirement benefit from all 3 countries.)

So, contact all 3 social security agencies, give then your social security numbers (for all 3 countries), and ask for copies of your contribution histories and eligible retirement benefits (if any). If you have not remarried you can also ask the U.S. what your spousal benefit would be. As a likely well compensated CPA it's quite possible your ex-wife has a good earnings history.

It's not the IRS that handles U.S. Social Security benefit determinations and payments. It's the U.S. Social Security Administration (ssa.gov). That's the agency you need to contact for U.S. Social Security benefits. SSA has counterparts in the U.K. and the Netherlands and should be able to tell you how to contact them as well.


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## americandream1 (Jan 11, 2015)

BBCWatcher said:


> I'm a little confused here, so perhaps you can clarify.
> 
> With respect to her IRS tax filings, she was legally permitted to file "Married Filing Separately." It sounds as if you didn't file tax returns during that period. If your income did not meet the filing thresholds for filing then that's fine, you had no obligation to file.
> 
> ...



Would it be legally O.K if I tell my side of the story on the Internet as my only way to reach my son is by internet as he does not even accept me on Facebook as a friend as he has been brainwashed. Do you think I should write to my son through internet and this will be open to the public too? I ask this because he has never let me tell him my side of the story and his mother has assassinated my character everywhere and I want the truth come up not only for him but for everybody. And I know those who read what happened to me think I am very stupid but I come from a working class family who trust everybody especially your partner who is supposed to be for life


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

americandream1 said:


> Would it be legally O.K if I tell my side of the story on the Internet as my only way to reach my son is by internet as he does not even accept me on Facebook as a friend as he has been brainwashed. Do you think I should write to my son through internet and this will be open to the public too? I ask this because he has never let me tell him my side of the story and his mother has assassinated my character everywhere and I want the truth come up not only for him but for everybody. And I know those who read what happened to me think I am very stupid but I come from a working class family who trust everybody especially your partner who is supposed to be for life


I can only give you my personal opinion based on what little information I read here.

Your son is not ready yet to talk with you. 25 is a difficult age. Only time will tell if and when he will talk with you. Walk in his shoes. How will he feel when he, friends, associates read your side of the story posted on-line for everyone to read? Will you get the response you are looking for?


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## americandream1 (Jan 11, 2015)

I think like you too that is why I am so pasive but sleeoles and if you can recomnd a lawyer in L.A would help so much.
thank you for lessening.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Just a suggestion - as far as claiming US Social Security goes, you can contact the Social Security office in the US Embassy in London: Federal Benefits / Social Security | Embassy of the United States Explain the situation to them and they should be able to tell you what documents you would need to be able to process your claim for a pension based on your ex-wife's work record.

You may not need to "lawyer up" just yet. Try the "easy" way first.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Bellthorpe (Jun 23, 2013)

americandream1 said:


> Would it be legally O.K if I tell my side of the story on the Internet as my only way to reach my son is by internet as he does not even accept me on Facebook as a friend as he has been brainwashed. Do you think I should write to my son through internet and this will be open to the public too? I ask this because he has never let me tell him my side of the story and his mother has assassinated my character everywhere and I want the truth come up not only for him but for everybody. And I know those who read what happened to me think I am very stupid but I come from a working class family who trust everybody especially your partner who is supposed to be for life


Sure, it's legally OK. Unlikely to have any effect, but legal. 

By all means write to your son on Internet (that's called 'email'). Or telephone him. Or send him a letter. Or all of those things. But telling the whole story in public won't help anything at all. Not him, not you, not anyone.


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## Davis1 (Feb 20, 2009)

americandream1 said:


> I think like you too that is why I am so pasive but sleeoles and if you can recomnd a lawyer in L.A would help so much.
> thank you for lessening.


Los Angeles Immigration Lawyer - California Visa Attorney - Los Angeles Family Visa Lawyer


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