Tax Refund Withheld for Spouse’s Debt

To qualify for an injured spouse claim when a refund is withheld, you must meet all three of these conditions:

1. You are not required to pay the debt.
   This means your spouse had the debt before you got married or that only your spouse is responsible for paying it.
   Examples: past-due child support, defaulted student loans, foreclosures on federal loans, unpaid state income tax and any separate federal debt.
    
2. You reported income on the joint tax return.
   Some or all of the income reported on the joint return (when the refund was withheld) must be your income from a job, self-employment or investments. If your taxable income for the tax year in question is $0.00, then your "share" of any refund is also $0.00.
    
3. You made and reported payments on the joint return.
   Payments include federal income tax withheld from your wages, estimated tax payments and refundable tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit or additional child tax credit.

Your share of a refund is based on the amount of federal income tax withheld from your paycheck or estimated tax payments you made on your self-employment income.

Any additional child tax credits will also be included in your share. Any earned income tax credit will be split between you and your spouse based on how much each you earned – that is, your contribution to the joint adjusted gross income.

Make a claim by filing IRS Form 8379. Get Form 8379 online or by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-3676.

• If you have not filed your joint tax return and received a notice that your refund will be withheld, complete your return and attach Form 8379 when you file it. Write “injured spouse” in the upper left corner of the first page of the return. You can still file your tax return online.
   
• If you have already filed your joint return and found out that your refund was withheld, complete Form 8379 as soon as you can and mail it to the IRS Center where you filed your tax return. If you lived in Vermont when you filed the joint tax return, mail it to:
  
  Department of the Treasury
  Internal Revenue Service Center
  Kansas City, MO 64999-0002
  
  If you aren’t sure what address to use, look it up on this irs.gov web page.

• Attach copies of all W-2 and 1099 forms received by you or your spouse to Form 8379.

Contact the IRS to request a copy of the Injured Spouse Claim Worksheet or contact our Low-Income Taxpayer Project. Fill out our form and we will call you back. Your information will be sent to Legal Services Vermont, which screens requests for help for both Vermont Legal Aid and Legal Services Vermont.

This IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service web page explains injured spouse relief and how to ask for it. It has links to the IRS forms and publications.