Usually they can. This is a complicated area.

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My divorce judgment requires my ex-spouse to pay the taxes.
Can the IRS collect my spouse's tax debts I didn't know about?
What is "Innocent Spouse Relief?"
How do I Qualify for "Separate Liabilities"?
How do I qualify for "Equitable Relief"?
How do I Apply for Relief?

My divorce judgment requires my ex-spouse to pay the taxes.

This is a common problem. The divorce court tells your ex to pay all the taxes, but he or she doesn't do it. Then the IRS comes looking for you. Unfortunately, the IRS can still collect from you. This may seem unfair, but under the law, if two people owe a debt, the creditor can collect from either one - even if a court tells one of them to pay the debt.

You do have two possible remedies. First, you can take your ex back to the divorce court to try to force him or her to pay you back what you paid the IRS. The other is to see if you qualify for special relief from the IRS. This is commonly called "Innocent Spouse Relief."

Can the IRS collect my spouse's tax debts I didn't know about?

Ordinarily yes - if you filed a joint tax return - but there are exceptions. Sometimes when the IRS audits your tax return, you find out for the first time that your spouse (or ex spouse) hid some income from the IRS.

Generally, if you and your spouse file a joint return, you each are liable for any tax due from that return (including added tax from an audit). This normally means that you can end up owing the IRS even if you feel that the debt should have been paid by the other spouse.

For many years, there was a law that allowed a spouse to get relief from the extra tax, but it did not work well. To make things fairer, Congress passed new rules in the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which can relieve you of the debts your spouse really should pay. Its three major provisions are Innocent Spouse Relief, Separate Liabilities, and Equitable Relief.

What is "Innocent Spouse Relief?"

Innocent Spouse Relief can be available when an audit uncovers either omitted income or an improper deduction that you did not know about. Further, you should not have received any benefit from the wrong. You can apply for relief even if you are still married.

Even though relief is easier now to get than it used to be, it is still hard. Most of the time you either knew about the problem and/or received some benefit from it. For example, say your wife ran a business and did not declare some of the income. Further, you did not know about the undeclared income. But the extra money was used to help pay for your new house. You would probably not qualify for Innocent Spouse Relief because you received a benefit from the wrong.