![Tax: women will no longer have to pay their ex-spouse’s tax debts Tax: women will no longer have to pay their ex-spouse’s tax debts](https://cap.img.pmdstatic.net/fit/https.3A.2F.2Fi.2Epmdstatic.2Enet.2Fcap.2F2024.2F05.2F14.2F8d65260d-8c8b-48f3-821e-a7662a3c44e9.2Ejpeg/1200x630/cr/wqkgSWxsdXN0cmF0aW9uIENhcGl0YWwgLyBBZG9iZSBTdG9jayAvIENBUElUQUw%3D/impot-les-femmes-nauront-plus-a-payer-les-dettes-fiscales-de-leur-ex-conjoint-1496718.jpg)
Reading time:
2 min
Even after a divorce, you may still owe your ex-spouse’s tax debts. To prevent women, who are mainly affected by the situation, from sometimes having astronomical sums to reimburse, parliamentarians have just adopted a text which protects them.
© Illustration Capital / Adobe Stock
– Ex-spouses are now better protected in the event of tax debt contracted by their former husband.
Avoid double punishment. After a divorce or a breakdown of a civil partnership, a person can sometimes have the painful surprise of discovering that he must repay the tax debts contracted by his ex-spouse. This is what we call tax solidarity. It is, however, possible to be “discharged” from this payment obligation if it is proven that there is a disproportion between the amount claimed and the income of the ex-spouse from whom reimbursement is requested.
The problem? The level of this disproportion has never been clearly established, which has resulted in refusals of requests for discharge. According to the Law Commission of the National Assembly, in 2022, out of 288 discharge requests received, Only 100 were granted. To make this discharge more accessible, parliamentarians adopted in a joint joint committee (bringing together deputies and senators), this Tuesday, May 14, a bill from the Modem for ensure property justice within the family.
The rest under this advertisement
The rest under this advertisement
>> Our service – Save money by testing our Health Insurance comparator
Prove ignorance of fraud
To strengthen the protection of the injured ex-spouse, parliamentarians relied on the notion of “third party” found in article L247 of the Book of Tax Procedures (LPF). It provides for the possibility of being relieved of responsibility for paying the tax due by a third party. However, until now, the ex-spouse or PACS partner is not considered a third party. The proposed law supplements this article by including as “third parties” divorced spouses or those who have officially terminated their civil partnership provided that they no longer live together and that they prove that they had no knowledge of the fraud and they did not benefit from it. It remains to be seen what evidence will be accepted. “We will work with the tax administration to see how it will be possible to frame this system”, specifies Hubert Ott, Modem deputy for Haut-Rhin, at the origin of the bill. For him, it is also a way of alerting citizens to the difficulties they may encounter and calling on them to be vigilant.
The rest under this advertisement
Taxes: here are the mistakes to absolutely avoid when filing your income tax return
If the notion of disproportion between the income of the “joint” ex-spouse and the amount of the debt will remain studied, “the criterion which will now be essentially retained is that of proof provided by the woman that she had no knowledge of the fraud”, welcomes Perrine Goulet, Modem MP for Nièvre and rapporteur of the text. Another novelty of the law, in the study of the financial situation of the ex-spouse from whom reimbursement can be requested, real estate held before the union is no longer taken into account. The elected official is also delighted with the strong commitment made by Bercy with the creation of a dedicated national cell on this subject, “which will prevent these situations from being treated differently from one region to another and will allow national monitoring of these discharge requests”.
The rest under this advertisement
The rest under this advertisement
This text must now be definitively voted on in both chambers. First of all on May 23 in the National Assembly, before moving to the Senate on a date which has not yet been set.
Receive our latest news
Every week, the key articles to accompany your personal finance.