Spouse owes back taxes prior to marriage

[jnazyv76]

What needs to be done to protect me from my spouses previous tax debt? This would be tax debt that was owed prior to marriage.

[KrisD15]

You have two options-

One is to file Married Filing Separately, although that might not be advantageous if you are married in a Community Property State such as California.  Additionally, you may loose valuable credits if you file separately.

The second option is to file Form 8379 "Injured Spouse Allocation". 

This form is filed when a joint refund is garnished for the debt of only one of the two spouses. 

Since you already are aware that the refund will be offset, you can include the form with your joint return. 

HERE is an IRS link 

HERE is a link from TurboTax with more information about using that form