What If My Fiancé Owes Back Taxes?

If your fiancé owes back taxes in the Seattle area, you are not automatically responsible for their debt once you’re married. However, there are situations that create risk. Even if only one of you owes, the IRS can often go after joint assets, and if you file together after you get married, the IRS can seize your refund for their debt.

Fortunately, your fiancé may qualify for innocent spouse relief or another tax debt relief plan – once you secure a resolution, you don’t have to worry about the IRS coming after assets.

Learn more about how your tax filing status can affect your tax liability before, during, and after your marriage and what you can do about it. Protect yourself with our innocent spouse relief services.

Key Takeaways

• You are generally not liable for tax debt incurred before marriage.
• But if you file a joint return, the IRS can keep your refund for your new spouse’s debt, and the IRS can also seize jointly owned assets.
• Use injured spouse relief to reclaim your portion of a joint refund seized for a spouse’s past debts using Form 8379.
• Washington has community property laws, but you should still be protected from liability for pre-marital IRS debt.
• Choosing married filing separately ensures you remain legally disconnected from your spouse’s past tax obligations, but it has other drawbacks.
• Innocent spouse relief protects you from liability if a spouse underreported or underpaid tax without your knowledge on a joint return.

What to Do Before Getting Married If Your Partner Has Tax Debt

While you’re still planning the wedding, you can take practical steps to limit your liability and protect yourself for the future. Here’s what to do now:

• Figure out what’s happening: Ask your partner to pull their IRS transcripts so you both can look at their tax history and current balance. Knowing about each other’s finances can be very helpful before you get married.
• Set up a resolution: Have your partner contact a tax professional or work with the IRS to set up payments, secure a settlement, or look into innocent spouse relief (more on that below). The IRS won’t come after your new spouse or you once you make arrangements for the debt.
• Be cautious with buying assets together: Be careful when titling joint assets before or after marriage. You may want to wait until the tax issue is fully resolved to protect yourself, as the law often allows the IRS to go after joint assets.

Continue reading to learn more about how tax debt, marriage, and filing status interact.

Can the IRS Seize My Refund for My New Spouse’s Debt?

If you are filing jointly and your spouse has tax debt, the IRS can intercept your refund to pay for those debts, even if it was pre-existing and you had nothing to do with it. These debts can include unpaid taxes, spousal support payments, student loan debts, state tax debts, and other creditors to whom your spouse owes money.

Here’s how to protect your refund if you marry someone with tax debt:

• File separately: If you and your spouse know that your spouse already has significant tax debts from prior years, you may want to file separately instead of jointly. When your spouse no longer owes the IRS money, then you can file jointly without having to worry about the IRS taking your refund, but there are several disadvantages to filing jointly.
• Request injured spouse relief: A better way to avoid refund seizure is to use Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, to recoup your portion of the joint refund that was used to cover tax debts of your spouse. You are considered an injured spouse if you filed jointly, your refund was applied to your spouse’s debts, and you were not responsible for that debt.

If you get injured spouse relief, the IRS will figure out which portion of the refund is yours and send it to you. This is different than innocent spouse relief – and depending on your fiancé’s situation, they may want to look into innocent spouse relief.

But what if your new spouse’s ex-spouse was supposed to pay that tax debt and isn’t? Unfortunately, the IRS will still seize your spouse’s refunds for that debt, unless they qualify and get approved for innocent spouse relief. Why? Due to joint filing liability.

What Is Joint Filing Liability for IRS Tax Debt?

If you file jointly, you and your spouse are both responsible for the tax owed, regardless of who earned the income. Joint and several liability is a legal term that means both you and your spouse are liable for the full tax bill (not just for half), and the IRS will collect from whoever they can.

Joint filing liability applies even after a divorce, and the tax code overrules divorce decrees. That means that if your fiancé has tax debt from a prior marriage, the IRS could come after them – even if the divorce agreement says their ex needs to pay it. So, you need to know how to protect yourself and your shared assets – and innocent spouse relief might be able to help.

What Is Innocent Spouse Relief?

The IRS may provide you with innocent spouse relief if your spouse underreported their tax due (or underpaid the tax) on your joint tax return and you weren’t aware of the underreporting or underpayment.

With innocent spouse relief, the IRS will not hold you liable for the tax bill due to your spouse’s or former spouse’s errors, or they’ll agree to waive your liability for the underpayment. They may also agree to only hold you liable for the tax due related to your income on the return.

Then, you don’t have to worry about the interest, penalties, or collection actions like the IRS coming after your income or wages.

To qualify for innocent spouse relief, you will need to meet several conditions, such as being named on a joint tax return. You will also need to prove that you were ignorant of your spouse’s erroneous item or underreported income on the tax return and that you were not suspicious of the return. But there are exceptions to these rules – for example, if you were coerced into signing the return, the IRS may approve your claim even if you were aware of the issue.

It’s critical to get help if you’re dealing with a tax liability due to a spouse or former spouse. A tax pro can walk you through the nuance

Innocent Spouse Relief vs. Injured Spouse Relief

Here are the differences between these two programs.

How Innocent Spouse Relief Works

Classic innocent spouse relief ensures you’re not responsible for tax due to your spouse (or former spouse) understating income and over-inflating deductions on a joint return, but when you apply, the IRS will also consider.

• Separation of liability relief: If you qualify, you’re only responsible for your portion of the tax debt on the return. But you will need to prove that you and your spouse have been separated for at least 12 months, that you are legally separated, or that you are divorced. Your divorce decree, financial documents, and other information can all be used to prove your separation status to the IRS. This might be an option for your fiancé.
• Equitable relief: This is a catchall category for people who don’t meet the requirements for the other two types of innocent spouse relief, but it would be unfair to hold them responsible.

How Do Community Property States Work?

Washington is a community property state, which means that income that either spouse earns during the marriage is jointly owned, and debts incurred during the marriage are also shared.

How does that affect taxes? As usual, you are both responsible for tax debt if you file jointly, but even if you file separately, you are still liable for half of the tax because the income is all considered to be community income.

However, you still generally won’t be held liable for your spouse’s tax debt from before your marriage. But if you get married and start owning assets together, the IRS can come after those jointly held assets.

Because each state is different, you want to be sure you work with a Washington tax expert if you’re living in this state. Contact our Seattle tax attorney to get started.

How Do I Negotiate IRS Debt?

If your fiancé or new spouse owes tax debt, it may be time to hire a tax attorney in Seattle to negotiate with the IRS. Making arrangements on the tax debt protects you from unwanted collections. Besides innocent spouse relief, options include: payment plans, offers in compromise, or currently not collectible status.

Resolve the Debt Before the Marriage – Get Help Now

Get in touch with Seattle Legal Services, PLLC at 206-895-7268 to learn more about your tax relief options. Whether you want to resolve tax debt before you get married or are dealing with any other problems, we can help.

FAQs About Marriage and Tax Debt

Will I be responsible for my spouse’s tax debt after we’re married?

In Washington, you are jointly responsible for your spouse’s unpaid taxes after you get married, whether you file jointly or separately. You are not responsible for paying their pre-marital tax debt, but the IRS could go after shared assets even if you buy them long after that debt was incurred.

Can the IRS seize my refund to cover my spouse’s taxes?

If you file jointly, the IRS could seize your tax refund to cover your spouse’s tax liability. Consider filing separately or submitting a request for injured spouse relief to reclaim your refund.

Should I file jointly with my spouse if they have debt?

You may want to file separately until your spouse’s debt is paid off to reduce your liability and protect your tax refund, but filing separately has a lot of drawbacks. You’re better off talking with an attorney about injured spouse relief.

Do I qualify for innocent spouse relief or injured spouse relief?

Innocent applies when you’re being held responsible for your spouse, ex, or late spouse’s portion of a tax bill. Injured applies when the IRS takes a refund from a jointly filed return to cover debt your spouse owes on their own.

Can you be held liable for tax debt after a divorce?

Yes, regardless of what the divorce agreement says, if you filed jointly, you’re responsible for those taxes after divorce. And in community property states, you’re typically liable for tax debt from separately filed returns, even after a divorce, but the rules can be a bit more nuanced in some situations.

What if your fiancé is a surviving spouse?

If they filed jointly before their spouse died, the IRS will hold them responsible for the tax debt, but again, they may want to look into innocent spouse relief. However, in this case, you also need to consider the estate, state law, and other potentially complicating factors.

How often is innocent spouse relief granted?

The IRS receives an estimated 50,000 requests for innocent spouse relief each year from people who do not want to be held responsible for their spouse’s taxes. However, because this form of tax bill relief is determined on a case-by-case basis and because the requirements for this relief plan are hard to meet, it may be a challenge to be granted this status. In fact, the IRS often rejects the majority of applications. That’s why it’s critical to work with a pro.

Sources:

https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/news/tax-tips/the-tax-ramifications-of-tying-the-knot/2025/07/

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8379

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/injured-spouse-relief

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/innocent-spouse-relief

https://www.irs.gov/irm/part25/irm_25-018-004

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p555

https://www.irs.gov/irm/part25/irm_25-018-001

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/marriage/five-tax-tips-for-community-property-states/L4jG7cq7Z