My husband and I own a small construction company. we file joint (schedule C/1044) every year together. He recently had a stroke and is now in a coma. when I went to apply for disability/social security he hasn't been getting any credits only me. Is there a way to fix this?

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about your husband's health problems. It sounds like you've been filing taxes for your business as a sole-proprietorship under your Social Security number (SSN). If that was a mistake then you could potentially file amended tax returns. Self-employment earnings reported on a joint tax return are credited to the spouse whose Social Security number appears on Schedule SE of the tax return.

The problem with filing amended tax returns is that the statute of limitations bars correcting a person's Social Security earnings record based on an amended return unless the amended return is filed within 3 years, 3 months and 15 days of the end of a given year. For example, if a person files amended tax returns on April 13 2022, only the years 2018 through 2021 would be open for correction for Social Security purposes. On April 16 2022, only the years 2019 through 2021 would be open to correction.

Even if you don't file amended tax returns, Social Security could potentially reallocate some of the reported earnings from the business from your SSN to your husband's SSN. That might be possible if your business was operated as a de facto partnership between you and your husband. Oftentimes, a husband and wife will operate a business as partners, but then report the earnings from the business to only one spouse. If that's what happened in your case, then you can ask Social Security to split the earnings you reported from the business between your and your husband's Social Security earnings records. That would mean subtracting earnings from your earnings record and then adding them to your husband's earnings record. The potential downside of that is that it could result in a lower Social Security benefit rate for you. For more information, refer to the following section of Social Security's operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0301802334.

It's important to note that I don't know the full facts of your situation, so I don't know if either of the above options are appropriate or advisable in your case. I'm just explaining what might be possible given the limited information in your question.

Best, Jerry