Hello,

My wife has federal student loans.
I have no loans.
We live in California, a Community Property State.
She’ll be eligible for student loan forgiveness under PSLF in a few more years.
Therefore, we’re filing separate returns as Married Filed Separate, splitting all income, deductions and withholdings.

Can anyone recommend a CPA in California who has successfully done this sort of return with no push back from IRS or California Tax Board, or if there was push back, handled all the communications for you and resolved it?

The reason I’m looking for a CPA with experience is:
I did the our returns 2 years ago (2016 tax year). California accepted both our returns. IRS accepted mine, rejected my wife’s and demanded $6k in tax due. After several letters back and forth, and several phone calls, we finally got her return accepted as originally filed, but it took 6 months and many hours of our time.

Last year (2017 tax year), we went to a CPA who understood the situation, said it shouldn’t be a problem, and filed our return with the exact numbers I would’ve come up with. He had a few different explanatory notes, and I hoped would have back channel communications with the IRS if any problems came up. Nope, same result—IRS is asking for more documentation (for wife’s return only!), now in February 2019! We’re going to have to try and use Taxpayer Advocate Service to get it resolved.

So for 2018 tax year (filing this year), we’re looking for a CPA who has successfully navigated all this before, and will respond to IRS on our behalf if necessary.

Thanks in advance.
Ben