Injured Spouse

[arlo]

I client of mine who is single and has federal tax liabilities of prior years wants to get married
He wants to know if his new spouse would have liability of any of his prior years taxes.
He wants to make sure that any refund she my have coming would not be used for his tax lia.
Would the filing of Form 8379 and 8857 by the new wife take care of this problem?

[DaveinTexas]

Form 8379

Should do the trick. Form 8857 is for Innocent Spouse Relief, totally different animal.

The new spouse will not be subject to the other spouse's tax debt but her refunds will be offset by his tax debt if they file Married Filing Jointly. You should run the numbers for them using both MFJ and MFS (married filing separately) to determine the best approach.

If they file jointly in a community property state be sure to read up on how to allocate income and expenses on the 8879. If not a community property state then the form is pretty self explanatory. They can file jointly and she would receive her portion of her refund.