topic File the Joint Return... You Have a Bullet in your gun... in Relationships and Money

Married Wife w/ Bad credit

EddieSFL — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:43:04 GMT

My current wife has a lot of medical bills and student loans before I came into the picture. We are now married. We do not have any credit cards together and still have seperate bank accounts.

We were discussing getting a joint account. She has paid all her current bills and has not been past due for over 2 years. Its all her old debt that worries me.

1) Can they come after me for her old debt?

2) will this hurt my credit if we get a joint checking account, but no joint credit cards?

I am going to help get those paid off, but she owes a lot.

Please let me know. :)

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

GregB — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:58:25 GMT

There are not any simple answers to this and some of it varies a bunch by the laws of your state.

They can come after you for her old debts but not as easily and you might be able to fight it in court. A joint account just makes it that much easier. Individual debts are supposed to stay individual debts but her assets tend to become assets that belong to both of you.

You will probably be safest keeping the finances separate until you get the old stuff paid off. Hard to say if that is worth the effort to do that as not commingling funds would require her bank account to be used for her income, assets and debts only and your bank accounts used only for yours.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

lashaun3 — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 03:20:22 GMT

My personal experience was similar, ex-husband owed hospital bill from 9yrs prior to our marriage, the 1st and following years filing joint taxes, the hospital garnished a huge portion of our refund for his debt.:smileyfrustrated: The 2 bank accounts we had weren't touched, so your results may vary.....just something to think about.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

IOBA — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:37:03 GMT

I agree with other posts - keep EVERYTHING separate for now.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

thankfulheart — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:38:58 GMT

Medical debt is hers, but I learned that my hubby assumed responsibility on my student debt when we married and he had to start signing off on all of the paperwork as well as including his income for repayment purposes. I don't know if that's changed, but worth looking into.

I have done a 180 and am now a full proponent of separate accounts.

o can

EddieSFL — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:53:46 GMT

Who can I reach out to? Do I contact attorney to find out for sure the laws in Florida?

Should we not file taxes as married?

She will not be happy with that, so i would like to speak to a professional, but not sure who.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

beb86 — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:55:33 GMT

Went/going through the same situation with my wife.i I added her to my account so we now have a joint account and she was on a payment plan with cap1 and when the law firm "forgot" to renew the PP for the remaining balance the put a hold on our account for the amt remaining. Can the come after you personally? No unless you are a co-signer or have guaranteed credit. If you have a joint account the can come after that. So keep it separate and work on her debt. Her debt is now your debt just not legally.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

beb86 — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:56:44 GMT

I also don't see any reason to file separately

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

webhopper — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 22:38:03 GMT

I think a good family attorney or consumer finance attorney may be able to help you.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

wallyworld123 — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:30:25 GMT

EddieSFL wrote:
My current wife has a lot of medical bills and student loans before I came into the picture. We are now married. We do not have any credit cards together and still have seperate bank accounts.

We were discussing getting a joint account. She has paid all her current bills and has not been past due for over 2 years. Its all her old debt that worries me.

1) Can they come after me for her old debt?
2) will this hurt my credit if we get a joint checking account, but no joint credit cards?

I am going to help get those paid off, but she owes a lot.

Please let me know. :)

NO her old debt is just that hers not yours u are not responsible. anything that the 2 of u decide on after the nuptials like joint accounts u will be held responsible. the both of u will.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

mtrsprt — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 00:10:35 GMT

ALWAYS keep financial responsibility seperate. Married or not. There is ZERO advantage to having joint acconts.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

EddieSFL — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:15:27 GMT

So filing tax returns as married will not get my accounts garnished by the student loans?

If joining the checking accounts together does not make any of her debt mine, why do it? She gets paid well, but does not manage her money well. I want to take full control of how we spend our money and make sure that we are both debt free.

I will contact a family attorney also see what they think.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

FrugalRican — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:37:24 GMT

mtrsprt wrote:
ALWAYS keep financial responsibility seperate. Married or not. There is ZERO advantage to having joint acconts.

Not entirely true.

I have a joint account with my DGF. It helps with the transparency of the bills. That's what our joint is for. Nothing more, nothing less.

Everything else is separate.

I think people are looking at the issue of the OP incorrectly. I wouldn't be keeping a separate account because you're worried about her past debt, I'd be worried about a joint account because it COULD potentially become a repeat behavior in the future.

OP, if she doesn't like that you are trying to cover your bases here, then it's best you find out BEFORE you get married to see how she really feels about it. You wouldn't invest time and money into sinking stock, so why do that with a relationship. In your situation, I'd keep everything separate from her, everything.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

EddieSFL — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:53:26 GMT

She does a good job with her finances now. She pays all bills on time. The issue is the past due student loans.

Should we file our tax returns together?

We are going ahead with having a joint checking account. Just trying to figure out what is best.

Married by filing seperate or file Married together.

Her student loans are about 15k.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

FrugalRican — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:41:09 GMT

Filing as "married filing separately" is like leaving free money on the table. In other words, its very rare that there is ANY benefit to filing like this. You're much better off filing joint.

Tax world and financial world are two different beasts.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

EddieSFL — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:07:19 GMT

So if I file joint are they able to come after me for her student loans?

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

coreyb80 — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:45:11 GMT

If you file jointly yes they can garnish your refund. These were words that came from my attorney mouth when me and my wife filed chap 7 because I owe unemployment.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

loviedovie — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 07:58:50 GMT

EddieSFL wrote:
She does a good job with her finances now. She pays all bills on time. The issue is the past due student loans.

Should we file our tax returns together?

We are going ahead with having a joint checking account. Just trying to figure out what is best.

Married by filing seperate or file Married together.

Her student loans are about 15k.
____________________________________________________________________________________

You are getting a variety of responses here and as a current grad student who gets the up to the minute info from the loan office I can tell you as a fact- they can and absolutely will come after you for her loans if you file together. This has nothing to do with state law, it is a federal issue as determined by the Department of Ed. Perhaps it was different in years past, but in 2012 that is the reality.

That said, if it is only 15k, that's really nothing and perhaps the joint tax benefit would be greater than what you would lose on her loans (this I don't know, I have never filed joint taxes so I don't know what the benefits are). It's only something to worry about if she had gone to law school and has 200k or along those lines. Then they consider your income as well as hers in any repayment plans they offer her, even the loan forgiveness plans.

So it's not a question as to whether the will or will not pursue you for her loans.

The question is- will you save more than 15k by filing together. You have to weigh the options that way to find your answer.

Re: Married Wife w/ Bad credit

EddieSFL — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:36:20 GMT

Thanks for the responses especially - loviedovie. Very helpful.

I am going to go ahead and file a joint return and hope they do not garnish. Not yet at least.

File the Joint Return... You Have a Bullet in your gun...

copprtop99 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:09:28 GMT

File MFJ and fill out an innocent spouse form 8379 to send with your 1040. This states that your part of the refund, based on some arcane calculations, will not be intercepted, but the part that is hers.

From IRS:

"Did you file a joint Federal tax return AND did the IRS take your refund to satisfy your SPOUSE'S OR FORMER SPOUSE'S past due Federal tax, child support, or Federal non-tax debt, such as a student loan?"

You are eligible for innocent spouse relief... unless you are in a community property state such as California.

I hope this helps.