Bogus incentive to take on debts (8)
I believe the answer is:
spurious
'bogus' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'incentive to take on debts' is the wordplay.
'incentive' becomes 'spur' (an incentive spurs someone on).
'to take on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'debts' becomes 'IOUs' (promises to pay debts).
'spur'+'ious'='SPURIOUS'
(Other definitions for spurious that I've seen before include "fraudulent" , "Contrived" , "Forged" , "deceitful!" , "Plausible, but false" .)