This seems like a general question and not an IMHO thing, Hopefully I am right.
My new spouse and his ex spouse owe 13 thousand in back taxes. When they were married she had two children from a previous relationship that he claimed on his taxes. Hers too, I guess I should say the filed jointly. Well somewhere in their the childrens father claimed them too. (how or why I have no clue, because he was out of the picture in prison) So the Irs said they both have to pay it back.
He has since divorced his ex. She promptly fell off the face of the earth, and has not filed taxes since 98. My Spouse has a payment agreement with the IRS. Right now he is trying to get it so his ex wife has to pay too, now that we know where she is and where she works. (The IRS told him in the beginning that he was the only one responsible for it until they could find her. Infact they sent her paperwork to warn her about her check being levied to my house because somewhere they lost the info that they were divorced. Boy do I love the IRS) I really don’t care about any of this, I just don’t want my tax redund all screwed up because of this.
Do I file separatly? I have heard its not worth it to file separate because the I will get taxed so much that it will eat my return. When I talk to the IRS, they really don’t care, and suggest that I should let my return go to pay help pay their bill. Is there any good way around this?