After a legal separation or divorce, a debt is generally owed only by the spouse who incurred the debt, unless the debt was incurred for family necessities, to maintain jointly owned assets (for example, to fix a leaking roof), or if the spouses keep a joint account.
Generally, one is only liable for their spouse's debts if the obligation is in both names. ... But, unlike a common law state, in community property states all debts incurred by either spouse during the marriage are shared equally, regardless of whose name is on the account.
Keep Things Separate
Keep separate bank accounts, take out car and other loans in one name only and title property to one person or the other. Doing so limits your vulnerability to your spouse's creditors, who can only take items that belong solely to her or her share in jointly owned property.
In common law states, you're usually only liable for credit card debt if the obligation is in your name. So, if the credit card is only in your spouse's name, you're typically not liable for that debt.
Should you help pay your partner's debts? ... You are not legally responsible for your partner's debts unless they are joint debts or you have acted as guarantor. It doesn't matter whether you are living together nor whether you are married – one person is not responsible for another person's debts.
Fortunately, most states are not community property states so your spouse cannot be pursued for your debts. Currently, there are only nine community property states in the United States: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington.
Each spouse is liable for their own separate tax debts, if any. However, you will not receive any of the tax breaks that you are eligible for when filing jointly, so you may not receive as large of a tax return, or you may end up paying more in taxes, since you are taxed individually.
That means technically, either one can empty that account any time they wish. However, doing so just before or during a divorce is going to have consequences because the contents of that account will almost certainly be considered marital property. ... Funds in separate accounts can still be considered marital property.
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Assets acquired during a marriage are typically viewed as community property. When it comes to bank accounts, this means that bank accounts established after marriage, whether joint or separate, belong to both spouses and will need to be equally divided in the event of a divorce.
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