Married Wife w/ Bad credit

[mtrsprt]

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

[EddieSFL]

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. 

[FrugalRican]

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@mtrsprt wrote:

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

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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.

[EddieSFL]

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. 

[FrugalRican]

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.

[EddieSFL]

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

[coreyb80]

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.

[loviedovie]

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@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. 

[EddieSFL]

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. 

[copprtop99]

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.