A recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said the IRS has insufficiently trained employees for handling requests from divorced and separated spouses about efforts to collect delinquent taxes owed on joint tax returns. The finding hinges on a recent addition to the tax code under which joint filer taxpayers who are no longer married or live in the same home can request information on IRS efforts to collect delinquent taxes from past joint returns.

Clients “absolutely” do not understand the tax and financial implications of divorce and collection efforts on past joint returns, according to Marilyn Ayers, CPA, in Brick, N.J. “Often in the divorce decree, a civil document, it will state that Joe is responsible for the 2015 tax liability of $4,000 [for a jointly filed return]. The IRS couldn’t care less about that statement. The couple is jointly and separately liable for the tax.”

The report highlights tax challenges your clients who are about to divorce or are newly divorced might face. Separated parties are still considered married in the eyes of the IRS, for instance, before the issuing of a divorce degree or separate maintenance order. “They usually understand some of the basics because their divorce attorney … has already discussed it with them,” says CPA Brian Stoner in Burbank, Calif. “But they need to sit down with their tax preparer and see what’s unusual in their situation.”

Stoner has found that the recently divorced frequently forget to change withholding status after the divorce is final, as well as negotiate child support as opposed to alimony. “I once had a couple fighting over alimony, but there were two kids in the marriage. Increasing child support and decreasing alimony allowed them to agree on a payment amount.” (Child support payments are not deductible and if your client received child support, nor is it not taxable. Your client can deduct alimony paid to or for a spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation decree. If your client receives alimony from a spouse or former spouse, it is taxable in the year your client receives it.)

Another major planning mistake in a divorce, according to Ayers: dependents. “Again,” she notes, “the IRS does not deal with what the divorce decree says. The IRS goes with the divorce parent rules and who is the custodial parent.” The IRS presumes that the custodial parent will get the dependency exemption, the “custodial parent” generally defined as the parent who has the child for the greater portion of the calendar year.

High-net-worth individuals can face special problems in a divorce, such as the basis of such assets as a house, rental property, investments and so on. Basis is critical: If your client and spouse jointly sell a home at the time of the divorce, for instance, capital gains tax apply after a general $250,000/each exclusion for gain in the sale – depending too on how the house is used after the split. Generally, according to the IRS, there is no recognized gain or loss on the transfer of property between former spouses if the transfer is because of a divorce though the transaction may have to be reported on a gift tax return.

In community property states, if separate property was brought into the marriage, Stoner points out, taxes associated with it need to be allocated to that spouse before overall assets and tax consequences of the divorce are calculated.

Each party should secure proper copies of prior-year tax returns from during the marriage, Ayers says. Your client may be able to deduct legal fees paid for tax advice in connection with a divorce.