Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

If you owe the "feds" money then you should not be having a joint account with anyone including your mother. I don't know who the "feds" are - do you mean the IRS? Or some other agency? If its the IRS, they have ways of placing liens on your house or other items that most creditors cannot do absent a judgment. Why don't you sign the check over to your mother and have her deposit it in her bank and then give you the cash????

Moreover, have you thought about resolving the matter with the feds in some way so that you do not have to worry about this?