South Carolina Tax Attorney

QUESTION:

    I am going through a divorce and I know that my spouse and I still owe a lot of money to the IRS.  We have filed married filing jointly throughout our entire marriage.

ANSWER:

    There are several issues that are apparent in your situation, and some that may come up depending on the exact circumstances of your marriage.  Since you filed your tax returns jointly, you are both equally liable for the tax debt.  This is called joint and several liability and it means that the IRS can try to collect the tax, penalties and interest from either you or your husband or both of you. 

    While you are going through your divorce, you should consider that the taxes will need to be taken care of at some point.  The IRS isn’t going to just stop trying to collect the taxes from you and your spouse just because your marriage will be no longer.  Therefore, you and your spouse should negotiate about who is going to be liable for the taxes (or how you are going to split the tax liability between the two of you).  While, your spouse may be made "liable" for the taxes by the family court, that doesn’t force the IRS to cease coming after you for the payment of the taxes.  Therefore, it would be imperative that whoever is "liable" for the taxes after the divorce is final, should immediately begin trying to negotiate with the IRS about settling the tax liability before it effects the other party.

    Sometimes, however, when a divorced spouse settles tax liability, it still leaves the other spouse liable (according to the IRS).  It would be my advice that even though your spouse is "liable" for the taxes according to the family court, it may be in your best interest to attempt to settle the taxes with your spouse.  You should contact a qualified tax professional today about your options.

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