How does injured spouse work?

Let’s suppose that you marry somebody who has previous debts that are being collected by tax enforcement, such as old tax debts or past due child support or student loan payments.  If you file a joint tax return with your spouse, the entire refund may be confiscated to pay those pass debts. If you filed two separate returns using the married filing separately status, any tax refund that you claimed on your separate return will be paid and only your spouse’s refund will be confiscated.  However, married filing separately has many disadvantages, and some important tax benefits are reduced or disallowed.

The injured spouse form is used to allow you to file a joint return with your spouse and then request that part of your refund that is due to your share of income and deductions be paid, even though the other part of the refund will be taken for the past debts.  The IRS will always take at least part of a joint refund for the spouse’s past debts, but filing jointly and including the injured spouse form can sometimes result in a larger refund and lower tax owed then filing separately.

The injured spouse form can only be used when you file a joint return with your spouse and you are requesting relief from debts that your spouse had from before the marriage.

File Form 8379 with your return.

Form 8379 lets you (the "injured spouse") get back your portion of a jointly-filed refund if it's seized or offset to pay your spouse's debt.

You must file jointly to use this form. Filing an 8379 will delay your federal refund by up to 14 weeks.

To file this form in TurboTax:

1. Open or continue your return.
2. In the search box, enter injured spouse and then select the Jump to link in the search results.
3. Answer Yes to Do you want to claim innocent or injured spouse relief? and carefully follow the onscreen instructions.

Note: Pay close attention to the screens, as some of them apply to innocent spouse relief, which is different. Leave those questions blank if you only want to claim injured spouse relief.