Wife filed joint tax returns that I never signed

I am wondering if its still possible to file charges against my soon to be ex wife.  In 2004 she filed our 2003 joint federal and state tax returns using a tax service.  I never knew she did it nor did I approve or sign anything.  I also know that I never did see the checks from the returns.   She even let me go so far as to complete our returns myself all the way to the point where I asked her to have them mailed.  

I do have a copy of the returns I completed as well as the ones she had done by the service.

Is it to late now to file any charges (we are in Oregon) or can I still file the report with the police?

thank you

You don't file charges. All you can do is file a complaint with the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over this—in this case, the IRS. It is up to the IRS and the U.S. Attorney whether to pursue criminal charges.

A couple of questions here. First, did you file a return for 2003? If not, why not? If you thought the joint returns you prepared were filed, did it have a refund? If so, why did you not inquire back then what happened to the refund? Was the return she filed accurate? Did she file it electronically? And was the money from the return deposited into a joint bank account?

In general, if the return was accurate as filed and you never filed your own return for 2003, you are probably better off making a claim in the divorce for your share of the refund in the marital property division and letting the rest go.

I agree with everything except your last paragraph.

If the return was accurate, then there is little to no chance that a judge in a divorce case now, 5-6 years later, will address that.  Too much time has passed.

However if the return was inaccurate, and the IRS has assessed additional tax and penalties/interest plus the tax are outstanding, then the judge in the divorce definitely could address that.

LdiJ:

If the return was accurate, then there is little to no chance that a judge in a divorce case now, 5-6 years later, will address that. Too much time has passed.

Perhaps. But, as a lawyer, I can tell you this–it's easy to include the claim along with everything else in the property division. Since the lawyer has to argue the property division anyway, adding this shouldn't add much, if anything, to the cost of litigation. Depending on the applicable state law (and we don't know the state here) and the amount at issue, a judge might do something about that. How hard you'd fight would also depend on those two factors. But it's probably worth making at least one stab at it. If he tries and the judge doesn't bite, well, at least he tried. You never know; I've seen judges include all kinds of things you might think were too old or otherwise beyond arguing in property division. Note I didn't say that the poster would succeed, only that in the case of an accurate joint return where he didn't file anything separately, this would likely be his best avenue, uncertain though it may be, to redress the problem.

LdiJ:

However if the return was inaccurate, and the IRS has assessed additional tax and penalties/interest plus the tax are outstanding, then the judge in the divorce definitely could address that.

I didn't address this situation, of course, so your disagreement cannot be about this. Yes, the judge could potentially take that into account in the divorce. Moreover, in that case the poster also can pursue the remedy of filing his own return and reporting the false joint return to the IRS. Again, depending on the amount at issue, it may well be worth doing both.

Were you separated at the time?  If you were still together- it is a non issue as any refund would have been considered marital and used during the marriage.  Generally, you can't complain about how monies were used or by whom prior to separation.

If you were separated,  it would be part of distribution of the marital property ( your claim being that the tax refund was marital- and you did not receive your portion).