Yes, the IRS can come after you for your spouse’s taxes, and it happens routinely. If you signed a joint return, both of you owe the entire bill — tax, penalties, and interest — no matter who earned the income or who made the error. If you live in a community property state, your spouse’s unpaid taxes can reach you even when you file separately. The good news is that Congress built in relief for spouses caught by these rules, but every option has a deadline, and missing it closes the door for good.
Joint Returns Make Both Spouses Liable for Everything
When you sign a joint tax return, you take on what the tax code calls “joint and several liability.” Under 26 U.S.C. § 6013(d)(3), the liability for the tax on a joint return belongs jointly and severally to both spouses.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6013 – Joint Returns of Income Tax by Husband and Wife In practice, the IRS can collect 100% of what’s owed from either one of you. It doesn’t matter who earned the income, who prepared the return, or who kept the refund. Two signatures mean two people on the hook for the whole balance.
This survives your marriage. A divorce decree that assigns past tax debt to your ex is a contract between the two of you, and the IRS is not a party to it. If your ex-spouse doesn’t pay, the IRS will collect from you, and waving the decree at a revenue officer won’t change that. Your only remedy would be back in family court, trying to enforce the decree against your ex — a separate fight on your own dime.
Community Property States Can Reach You Even if You File Separately
Filing a separate return doesn’t fully insulate you in nine states. Under community property law, income earned by either spouse during the marriage is generally owned equally by both, and the IRS follows state property rules when it decides what each spouse must report. Per IRS Publication 555, the community property states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 (12/2024), Community Property
If you file a separate return in one of these states, you report half of all community income plus all of your own separate income, and you attach Form 8958 showing how you split it.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 (12/2024), Community Property So if your spouse earns $120,000 and you earn nothing, you still report $60,000. If your spouse doesn’t pay the tax on their half, the IRS may look to your share of community assets to collect. Idaho, Louisiana, Texas, and Wisconsin treat income from separate property as community income as well, which widens the exposure further.
Protecting Your Share of a Joint Refund
If the problem is that the IRS grabbed a joint refund to pay a debt that belongs only to your spouse — past-due child support, defaulted student loans, state taxes, or back federal taxes from before you married — the fix is Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation. It asks the IRS to carve out your portion of the refund and send it to you.3Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation To qualify you must have filed jointly, had earned income, and made federal tax payments (through withholding or estimated payments) that contributed to the refund.
You can file Form 8379 with your joint return if you expect an offset, or separately after the fact if you’ve already been hit. Don’t sit on it. There are time limits for recovering an offset refund, and the sooner you file the better.
Injured spouse relief is often confused with innocent spouse relief. They solve different problems. Injured spouse is about getting your share of a refund back. Innocent spouse, below, is about getting out from under a debt.
Innocent Spouse Relief: Three Paths Out of a Joint Debt
Congress recognized that joint and several liability can produce unfair results, so 26 U.S.C. § 6015 provides three forms of relief. They target different situations and the eligibility rules barely overlap, so matching your facts to the right one is the first move.
Traditional Innocent Spouse Relief
Under § 6015(b), you must show four things: you filed a joint return; that return understated the tax because of your spouse’s erroneous items; you didn’t know and had no reason to know about the understatement when you signed; and it would be unfair to hold you liable.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return Most denials turn on “no reason to know.” If your spouse’s business was clearly bringing in money that never appeared on the return, or household spending plainly outran reported income, the IRS will argue you should have noticed.
Separation of Liability
Section 6015(c) splits the understatement between the two spouses based on which items belong to whom. You’re eligible only if you’re divorced, legally separated, or have lived apart from your spouse for at least 12 months before you file the election.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return Once approved, you owe only the portion tied to your own income and deductions. This relief covers understatements, not underpayments: if the return was accurate but the tax went unpaid, separation of liability doesn’t apply. Actual knowledge of the erroneous item disqualifies you.
Equitable Relief
Section 6015(f) is the catch-all. If you don’t fit either of the other two but holding you liable would be unfair under the full set of facts, the IRS can still grant relief.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return This is the only path that covers underpayments — returns that were correct but never paid. The IRS weighs factors from Revenue Procedure 2013-34, including whether you’re still married to the person who caused the debt, whether paying would cause economic hardship (the threshold is 250% of the federal poverty guidelines), what you knew, how the divorce decree handles the debt, and whether you got significant benefit from the unpaid taxes beyond ordinary support. Abuse by the other spouse is a heavy factor in your favor, even if you technically knew about the problem.5Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 2013-34
Deadlines That Shut Your Claim Down
The deadlines aren’t the same across the three types, and this catches people. Traditional innocent spouse relief and separation of liability both carry a strict two-year deadline. The clock starts when the IRS first takes collection action against you, usually a Notice and Demand for Payment or a refund offset applied to the joint liability.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8857 – Request for Innocent Spouse Relief Miss that window and those two options are gone.
Equitable relief is different. Under § 6015(f)(2), you can request it for unpaid taxes any time before the IRS collection period expires, which is generally ten years from the date of assessment.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return For taxes you’ve already paid and want refunded, you have to file within the normal refund claim period. That longer runway is why equitable relief functions as a safety net when the two-year clock has already run out.
How to File Form 8857
All three types of innocent spouse relief use the same form, Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief. File it separately from your annual return. Mail it to:
Internal Revenue Service Center
Attn: Stop 840F
7940 Kentucky Drive
Florence, KY 410427Internal Revenue Service. Where to File – Forms Beginning With the Number 8
You can also fax it with attachments to 855-233-8558.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8857 – Request for Innocent Spouse Relief Faxing locks in an immediate submission date, which matters when the two-year deadline is close.
Documentation drives the outcome. Pull together the joint returns at issue, every IRS notice you’ve received, your divorce decree or separation agreement, and financial records showing what you did and didn’t know about the household finances. For an equitable relief claim based on abuse, include anything you have: protection orders, police reports, medical records, witness statements. For an economic hardship claim, pull together your income, monthly expenses, and asset information.
One thing to brace for: the IRS is required by law to notify your spouse or former spouse about your request and let them participate.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return There’s no opt-out. If you have safety concerns tied to an abusive spouse, flag that on Form 8857; the IRS has procedures to limit what it shares, though some basic notice still goes out. Expect the review to take six months or longer, with possible requests for more documentation along the way.
What the IRS Can Seize While You Wait
A pending relief request doesn’t stop collection against jointly held property. Under IRC § 6331, the IRS can levy a joint bank account even when only one spouse owes the tax, and it doesn’t split the account down the middle. It treats both account holders as equal owners and can take up to 100% of the balance regardless of who deposited the money.
Once the levy notice hits your bank, the bank freezes the account and holds the funds for 21 days. If nothing is resolved in that window, the IRS takes it. A non-liable spouse can ask for a partial release for funds that belong only to them, but the burden is on you to prove it with bank statements and other records. Commingled funds are nearly impossible to untangle after the fact. If your spouse owes back taxes, keeping your paycheck in a joint account leaves it exposed. A separate account for your own income isn’t a guarantee in a community property state, but it creates a far cleaner paper trail if you ever have to prove what belongs to you.
If the IRS Says No
A denial is not the end. You get two levels of review. First, within 30 days of the preliminary determination letter, either spouse can file Form 12509, Innocent Spouse Statement of Disagreement, to appeal to the IRS Independent Office of Appeals.8Internal Revenue Service. Appeal an Innocent Spouse Determination Send the form and any new evidence to the IRS address on the determination letter, not directly to Appeals, and lay the facts out in chronological order with dates.
If the administrative appeal fails, you can petition the U.S. Tax Court. Under § 6015(e), you have 90 days from the date the IRS mails its final determination letter to file. If the IRS hasn’t issued a final determination within six months of your original filing, you can petition the Tax Court then without waiting longer.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return The Tax Court reviews the question independently rather than deferring to the IRS. The 90-day window is firm. Miss it and the Tax Court loses jurisdiction over your case.