{"id":7110,"date":"2015-02-16T06:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T06:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resource-center.hrblock.com\/?p=7110"},"modified":"2021-08-11T12:12:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T17:12:48","slug":"tax-refund-offsets-injured-spouse-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrbcomlnp.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/refunds-and-payments\/tax-refund-offsets-injured-spouse-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Refund Offsets and Injured Spouse Forms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You prepared your tax return. It showed you were due a refund. The return was filed and accepted with the IRS. The refund never came. What does this have to do with an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-injured-spouse\/\">injured spouse<\/a> form?<\/p>\n<p>After you&#8217;ve double checked to make sure your bank information and\/or mailing address was perfectly correct on your return, you may want to determine whether your refund was taken as part of an offset.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s right. The Department of Treasury&#8217;s Bureau of Fiscal Service issues refunds. BFS also operates <a href=\"http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/taxtopics\/tc203.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Treasury Offset Program (TOP).<\/a> Through this program, your refund may be reduced or wholly used to repay a debt, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Past-due child support<\/li>\n<li>Federal agency non-tax debts (i.e., defaulted student loans, overpaid social security, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>State income tax obligations<\/li>\n<li>Certain unemployment compensation debts owed to a state<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>BFS will take as much of your refund as is needed to pay off the debt.<\/p>\n<p>This can be very surprising and disappointing for some taxpayers. Especially for married taxpayers who didn&#8217;t know that their spouse owed the debt. There is an option for those people though.<\/p>\n<h2>Injured Spouse Allocation<\/h2>\n<p>While &#8220;injured spouse&#8221; may conjure up images of physical violence, the IRS uses it in a monetary sense. If you meet these criteria, you may be able to file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You filed a joint return<\/li>\n<li>Your refund was taken to pay an offset<\/li>\n<li>You are not responsible for the debt it was taken to pay<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you meet those items, you may be entitled to a portion of the refund you were supposed to receive. There are two ways to go about it.<\/p>\n<h2><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><em>1. You know about the debt.<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If you know your partner owes a debt like the ones outlined above, you can file Form 8379 with your tax return, right from the beginning. If you do so, write &#8220;Injured Spouse&#8221; on the top left corner of the first page of the joint return. It may take up to 14 weeks for the IRS to process your return and issue a refund.<\/p>\n<h2><em style=\"font-weight: bold;\">2. You were surprised by the offset.<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>After an offset happens, you can file Form 8379 by itself. It must show both spouses&#8217; social security numbers in the same order they appeared on your joint tax return. You will also need to include all of your Forms W-2 or 1099 that show income tax withholdings or your refund may be delayed. The &#8220;injured spouse&#8221; must sign the form. Send the form to the Service Center where you filed your original return. It can take up to 8 weeks for the IRS to process the form.<\/p>\n<p>Still have questions? To get expert help with injured spouse relief, learn about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-offices\/extended-tax-services\/tax-audit\/audit-support.html\">H&amp;R Block Tax Audit &amp; Tax Notice Services<\/a>&nbsp;or make an appointment for a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-offices\/local-offices\/#!\/en\/office-locator\/\">free consultation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You prepared your tax return. It showed you were due a refund. The return was filed and accepted with the IRS. The refund never came. What does this have to do with an injured spouse form? After you&#8217;ve double checked to make sure your bank information and\/or mailing address was perfectly correct on your return, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":26107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irs","category-refunds-and-payments"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<title>Tax Refund Offsets and the Injured Spouse Form | H&amp;R Block<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Didn&#039;t receive your refund? It may be due to a tax refund offset. 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