WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Cockrell, who last month told the Senate Finance Committee about being stuck with her ex-husband's $650,000 tax bill, today lost an appeal to have the Supreme Court hear her case.

Finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE) said that the Supreme Court's decision was proof that the law needed to be changed. "The Supreme Court's decision today shows that we need to take strong congressional action to prevent the IRS from hounding innocent spouses for debts that are not theirs," Roth stated.

"The IRS reform legislation that I am working on would tell the IRS to go after the person who owes the money, and instruct the agency to keep their hands off the innocent spouse. I am considering not only making it easier for spouses like Elizabeth to attain innocent spouse protection, but changing the law so that each spouse is only liable for the taxes on their income."

Ms. Cockrell and three other women testified in February about the issue of "innocent spouse" protections in the tax code. When a married couple files a joint federal tax return, each spouse is liable for the full amount of income tax for that year. This is known as joint and several liability. Under limited circumstances, one spouse may qualify as an "innocent spouse" and be relieved of joint liability for the other spouse's tax debt. However, the "innocent spouse" test is very difficult to meet, and in some cases the situation is greatly aggravated by the behavior of the IRS.

Ms. Cockrell told the committee in February that her ordeal with the IRS has lasted six years, over return filed nearly two decades ago. In 1979, at age 23, she moved from Canada to marry commodities broker. The marriage lasted three years. Nine years after her divorce, the IRS came after her for half a million dollars for the sham tax shelters that her ex-husband had invested in. In Tax Court, the IRS withheld evidence that may have allowed Elizabeth to be granted innocent spouse protections. The IRS is still after her for $650,000.

"This tax debt is not Ms. Cockrell's -- it belongs to her ex-husband. Thousands of women every year end up in similar circumstances. Many of them are struggling to put their lives back together after a divorce, when they get stuck with their ex's tax bill. That is not right, and I intend to change it," Roth stated.