Spouses filing together may owe separate amounts

When joint filers can owe separate amounts

You and your spouse may need to make separate payments even if you filed jointly, that is, together on the same tax return. We will issue “separate assessments” and notify each spouse separately of payments due in cases where you or your spouse’s debt was reduced, suspended or eliminated. This could happen for any of the following reasons:

• We granted you or your spouse innocent spouse relief for being unaware of some issue with your return
• One of you declared bankruptcy and their tax debt was cleared (“discharged”)
• We accepted an offer in compromise from one of you for less than what was owed
• We audited one of you and determined the amount we’d said was owed was wrong
• A tax court ruled one of you did not need to pay all or part of the debt
• One spouse appealed a collection decision or obtained a payment plan (for installment payments) in their name

Often a bankruptcy, offer in compromise, audit, appeal or court ruling would apply to both spouses, but not always, for instance, if you were recently divorced.

How to pay a separate amount

Normally we credit payments to the spouse whose name is first on the tax return, the primary filer for married couples filing jointly. To make sure a payment gets credited to the other filer, you will need to take certain precautions:

• Do not use Direct Pay for these separate assessment payments
• Pay through Online Account under the name of the spouse who should receive credit for the payment. If that person does not have an IRS Online Account, they will need to create one.
• If you must pay by check, write all of the following items on the check:
  • the words “MFT 31 separate assessment”
  • the Social Security number (SSN) or individual taxpayer identification number (TIN) only of the person who should receive credit for the payment
  • the tax year that the payment is for
  • the applicable tax form (like “1040”) or IRS notice number if we sent you a notice