Opinion ID: 1133492
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Tax Debt and Refund

Text: Finally, Lora argues that the superior court erred in requiring her to bear fifty percent of Samuel's tax debt for calendar years 1987 through 1993. She contends that Samuel committed an economically senseless act by amassing an unnecessary tax debt as a litigation strategy. She asserts that Samuel filed separate returns in April 1994 for the six previous years to support his superior court contention that the marriage ended several years before December 1993. She implies that by causing the parties to file separate returns, Samuel increased the couple's tax liability and wasted marital assets. Samuel argues that the parties had originally decided to file joint returns, that he sent Lora his W-2 forms, and that she failed to file on time. He maintains that he learned in August 1993 that Lora had not filed the returns and that he owed the IRS $11,000 plus interest and penalties. He asserts that he filed separately because Lora failed to file the joint returns. The superior court refused to assign blame for the late filing; it concluded that the tax debt and refund were a circumstance that [had] a monetary impact on the economic unit while it functioned as a marriage, and that they should be shared equally. Lora's arguments that Samuel committed an economically senseless act or wasted marital assets are unconvincing. Her acknowledgment that they had agreed to file jointly, that he sent her his W-2 forms, and that she simply failed to file, undermines her claim that Samuel engaged in a litigation strategy that unreasonably depleted marital assets. Lora relies on Jones v. Jones, [16] but that case is distinguishable. The question in Jones was whether the former husband's illegal gambling losses wasted marital assets, and if so, how much value the trial court should have added to the marital estate to compensate for the misconduct. [17] Samuel engaged in no comparable misconduct. The superior court did not clearly err by finding that the tax debt was a consequence of the marriage. The parties do not dispute that the debt arose before December 1993, when the parties separated. It was not an abuse of discretion to order each party to bear half of a debt that arose during the marriage, especially because the superior court decided that the debt was not the result of party misconduct. The fairness of dividing the debt is confirmed by the superior court's equal division of the entire marital estate.