Getting Rid of Joint Tax Liabilities in Divorce - Helping Ensure Your Client Doesn’t Get Stuck with the Bill

The IRS is an extremely powerful and effective debt collector. If your client owes the IRS taxes from joint returns filed with their ex-spouse, simply allocating the debts to the ex-spouse in the divorce decree, by itself, will not protect your client from IRS collection efforts related to the debts, including filing of federal tax liens and levies against wages, bank accounts, retirement accounts, or home foreclosure action. The IRS does not consider itself a party to a divorce decree, and therefore will not honor the terms of a divorce decree related to allocation of tax liabilities. Rather, the divorce decree language must be properly drafted and your client must request and be granted innocent spouse relief by the IRS to receive discharge from and to avoid IRS collection efforts related to the liabilities. In this presentation, we will discuss the requirements for innocent spouse relief and tips for drafting divorce decrees that will help tee your clients up for success in a request for innocent spouse relief from the IRS.