Or, husband changes the name on his bank account to that of his son, or girlfriend, etc. In these examples, the essence is that a debtor has placed an asset outside the legal reach of a bona fide creditor. But there is an added component. The IRS usually has a federal tax lien in place, which by law attaches to ALL property and rights to property that you, the tax debtor, owe. The other tort that you commit by asset transfers is tortious conversion.
Conversion is essentially a civil theft.
In the real world, the IRS usually goes after the big assets, not the living expense transfers. So this would apply to homes, bank accounts, retirement accounts, real estate, etc. The IRS' weapon is to sue the transferor and transferee for conversion , or to set aside a fraudulent transfer. While these suits are rare, they do occur. Divorcing or separating couples must be aware of these creditor rights to avoid stumbling into a problem they did not foresee.