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This is a serious situation in which you're friend finds herself. If I may ask, in what state does this take place? Every state has its own laws concerning non-marital asset allocations, etc. Best of luck to her.
@SilverEagle wrote:Hello! May I present a situation of someone close to me. Her and her ex-boyfriend lived together for 12 years and have a minor child in common. He is an auto-mechanic and she is a school teacher. He started up a business and opend up a shop in both thier names. They also bought a house in his name only. His financial wrecklessness is part of the reason they seperated.
Since they split she is now on the hook for the business tax debt (15,000) and also business credit card debt (20,000). Her credit is shot. He kept the house which went up dramatically in value since the purchase. There was no equity share of any kind since its in his name only. She recieved no money from the business. Instead she supllimented getting the business going and purchasing the house with her teacher salary. Furthormore they had come to an agreement for him to use a tax refund for tax year 2023 to pay down the irs debt in her name only from the business. He recieved an earned incom credit tax status and got a large return. She didnt realize until this tax season(a year later) that he did not follow through with the agreement yet he has bought several powersport vehicles and vacations. Its clear he has no intention of making this right.
I may not be explaining the facts very clearly. It feels criminal to me that she has all this business debt for a business she never recieved any income from. How can she be responsible for his income tax while he is living the rock and roll care free tax free lifestlye?
At this point the business is out of her name completly. However she is still responsible for the first half of 2024 business taxes. So its likly north of 40k in debt with half of that being to the irs. The credit cards are closed. He is not paying them down as agreed upon. Its clear to me he has no intention to and is playing the victim as she left him.
She is under the impression that its not a civil union recognized state so she has no rights to the house equity even tho she actually contributed way more then him. Any experts ever seen anything like this before? Does she have any way to get out of his debt? She can show her bank records proving she didnt recieve any income she is being taxed for. I feel bad for her but have no idea what she can do since they were never married. Its not like they can go to divorce court to get this all sorted and she is just getting conned into all his debt while he is taking earned income credits and partying it up. I just feel bad for her as she is a super nice caring trusting person and is drowning in debt created by him.
It's unfortunate that she's in this situation. It's hard when we're in a place where emotions don't listen to logic.
The bottom line is that she needs to work with an attorney, then go to court to remove her name from the business and divide their shares of debt and profit for the time her name was on the business.
Going to court is not fun at all. Unfortunately, the problem will not go away on its own and it needs to be addressed ASAP.
OP, I understand you care a lot about this person. As much as we want to help those we care about, there is a point where we can try to help them, but nothing will change unless that person chooses to take action. Be kind to yourself and understand that this is out of your control.
