X and I split debt 50/50, now he has filed bankruptcy, but owes me tax refund. will i not receive my refund. and he gets off with his portion of the debts, while i still have to pay.

Sorry to hear about your situation. I don't have any personal experience but have friends and relatives that do. I can't answer the question about the tax refund other than you may have to sue him to get it. I would be concerned about him filing bankruptcy if you have any joint debts. If he files and you still have joint debt this can adversely effect your credit. You may need to get a legal opinion on that. If you don't have any joint debt, while he may not have to pay off his debt, he will have the bankruptcy with him for 7 years which will severely impact his credit and prevent him from getting additional credit.

If you live in a community property state, regardles of whether the accounts are joint or not, the creditor will come after you for the money. If you do not live in a community property state you are responsible for any joint accounts/debt.

How/when did you file your tax return? Was it a joint return?

It's been more than year since I filed bk. I'm a little fuzzy on the details at this point, but for my situation, filing bk before divorce was the best option. I have extreme difficulty getting cooperation from my stbx. The following scenario was described to me... If the divorce happens first and debt is split 50/50, the credit card companies really don't care. For any account that has both names, the creditors would pursue both of us.

If I had filed divorce first, then bk, the result would be my name being removed from the jointly held accounts. The balance due would be unaffected. iow, if I filed bk first, a joint account with a $10,000 balance would become his singly held account with a balance of $10,000. What was my bargaining tool to get cooperation from my very uncooperative stbx is very bad news for you if your state is the same as mine (tx). I'm not sure how his filing bk would affect your credit rating post divorce, if at all, but you sure as heck need to get some legal counsel about the impact his bk has on the amount that you owe. Brace yourself for sticker shock.

Under federal bankruptcy rules debts to a former spouse that are considered support/alimony are not discharged in a bankruptcy. So IF the tax refund is categorized as such he'll still owe you that money.

Granted you still have to pay you half of the joint debts while his half may be discharged by the courts. I know it seems unfair but I wouldn't want to go through the bankruptcy process.