What happens when a married couple owes taxes for a previous year but are now divorced? Will the IRS hold refund money from both parties equally?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 11, 2025
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We still owe for 2023 income taxes from when we were married. Will any refund received individually be applied equally to the outstanding balance or will the former primary spouse have to bare the brunt?

MAK70

If you filed a joint return with a balance due, you and your ex-spouse are joint and severally liable for the tax debt. The IRS will collect from both parties. The tax refund from either or both will be used to pay the debt, and it is not necessarily equally.

scott_e_wilsonAuthor

Thank you! I figured that would be the case, but I wanted my suspicions confirmed. Is there a benefit for us filing at about the same time, or does it not matter?

SusanY1

There isn't any real benefit to either of you filing at the same time. However, they will likely apply the refund from the first return filed, though, so the two of you may want to discuss how you want to handle refund amounts as they are likely to take different amounts from each of you - taking as much as possible from the first return, and additional amounts, if needed, from the second.

For example if you owe $5,000 and there is a $6,000 refund on the first return, they will hold $5,000 from that one and refund $1,000. If the balance owed exceeds the full refund, they will take all of the refund from the first spouse and then take the remaining balance from the second.

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NikiB

This is my situation except I filed single last year also divorced at end of last year. The forms 8379 and 8357 both say you can’t complete form unless filed jointly.. what can I do?

Vanessa A

If you did not file a joint return when you were married, you are not responsible for your spouses tax liability.

Please provide more details as to why this is your situation?

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NikiB

Prior tax debt from 2019 and 2021 when married, were on a payment plan with IRS 500$ a month, lived separately all of 2024, divorced December 2024. Out divorce agreement included us filing single for 2024. He made much more than me last year as I was out of work for 6 months. My tax refund was a little over 8k unsure of his tax refund. If we divided the remainder of our tax debt I would owe a little over 6k however the IRS took my whole return. I should have close to 2k returned as overpayment. In speaking to a representative at the IRS I was told I could file a 8379 and maybe also 8359. However it says if you did not file jointly you cannot complete this form. Now of course we filed jointly for prior years however this past year that is in question was single. What should I do to ensure my portion of my taxes are considered paid off and get the remainder I’m due? Thanks!!