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Filing taxes jointly and Hubby owes arrears

minerva385's picture

My husband did not work at all in 2009. I earned all the money and supported us both independently. We are about to file our taxes. I tried it, to see what the amount would be, to file "Married-filing seperately" and I ended up owing a LOT of money. If I file "Married-filing jointly" we stand to get a return. My question is, he owes some back child support. I know that they plan to intercept our return(s) if they can, but I'm wondering will they take any of it if I file an injured spouse claim AND Hubby did not contribute to any of the earnings? Will they still consider a portion of it to be his? How do they figure out what that amount will be? Thanks for any help you can give! I really don't know how this works!

Most Evil's picture

Hmm, did he collect unemployment at all? I am wondering why I never get a tax refund and maybe it is because I have always filed 'married filing separately' - but like you, my DH has some financial issues I want no part of.

Hopefully one day we will be fully solvent - its like a dream I have!! I am curious to see what anyone else says on this . . .

Minerva in your case if they do intercept the refund at least some of his arrears will be paid? but I don't know if 'innocent spouse' will work for you to still get anything yourself if you file together

p.s. we have had BM be all, 'they will intercept your tax refund' - and we are like great - that $200 is such a huge amount to be behind, right? She acts like to be a couple hundred dollars behind is the same as NEVER PAYING AT ALL - um, no! I feel like she is trying to be on that 70s show - oooohh, burnnnn-!! pssssst! whatev
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“Learn by practice.” - Martha Graham

minerva385's picture

Nope. He didn't collect unemployment at all.

Married filing seperately is a crock. For me, there was over a thousand dollar difference between the two amounts! It is ridiculous!!!

In our state, they won't intercept any money unless the arrears go above $500 and won't allow you to get a passport or book travel out of the country if you owe more than $2500.

The "injured spouse" relief is supposedly set up for situations like this, where one person has an obligation that the other one does not legally have any part of. One spouse having child support arrears is one situation. You can also fill it out for instance, if I were to ever default on my student loans and the government decides to try to intercept my return to re-coup the losses, Hubby could file the form (if he's working) to get "his" portion of the return back because he is not legally responsible for it.

There is also "innocent spouse" relief. I don't know as much about this one, since it doesn't apply to me. I think it generally deals with individuals that owe back taxes and if you were unaware or seperated or something and therefore not responsible, you can supposedly have your portion of the return seperated out.

....thanks for your thoughts most [lovely]evil... Smile