Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Indiana

Re: Marriage and Previous Debt

No, your friends are wrong. The only way that you would be liable on your fiance's past taxes is if you had been his wife at the time and signed a joint return, which did not happen. if you marry him, there will be some administrative problems and inconveniences, but that will be the worst of it.

For example, if you get married and start filing joint returns, and you have a refund coming back, then the IRS will snag his share of the refund every year until his tax liability is paid off. You will be entitled to keep that portion of the refund that is attributed to your income, deductions and withholdings. This is done by you sending in an innocent spouse form with your return, or by responding with that form each and every time they snag the whole refund.

The other major effect of you getting married is that the IRS may be less prone to settle the taxes for a lesser amount with your fiance after he is married. The reason for this is that although the IRS cannot make you pay for his past tax liability, it will use your combined income to project how much of his income is available to pay on his tax liability. It will do this by using your income to help cover living expenses, thus freeing up more of his income to pay on the liability.

The one thing that I would be worried about is whether the circumstances still exist that caused the tax liability in the first place. For instance, does your fiance owe past taxes due to being self-employed, and not making quarterly estimated payments? If so, is he still self-employed and not making estimated payments? If the same facts exist, and your fiance has ongoing tax issues, then your best avenue is if you intend to get married, is to file separate returns each and every year until this situation changes. Otherwise, once married and signing a joint return locks you in to that year's tax liability, regardless of who caused the problem.