BACKGROUND:
My husband and I have been separated since April 2014. Married 7 years, no children. No written separation agreement. It was a volatile relationship, he met another woman (who he is living with now and they are engaged) and I was undergoing a lot of emotional abuse from him, so I just wanted to get the heck out of my situation.
He had personal debts and a run-down manufactured home (purchased before our marriage) and recently I found out that he declared bankruptsy at the end of last year. He told me that he was going to do a pro se divorce, since there were no complications with children and we verbally agreed, upon my leaving, that we would each be responsible for our own individual debt.
We are meeting Friday to get our taxes done and today he emails me and tells me that if he is taking care of the divorce, then he expects me to pay for Federal and North Carolina state taxes owed. I have not replied to his email and have not agreed to anything. We will be filing jointly. In the past we have always got a refund and any taxes I would pay out of that. He does not work and collects SSI and a pension from the State of NC. I work full-time.
QUESTION:
Since he filed bankruptsy in 2014, how is this going to affect our taxes this year? Are we going to really be hit hard in owing Federal/State taxes? If not, and I am able to pay any taxes from our refund, then that’s fine. I thought this was going to be an easy process and that, after taxes, we would just split whatever remained of our refund. Now my husband is playing hardball with me it seems.
I know this is last minute, but if someone would be able to give me some counsel, I’d appreciate it.