How to File an Injured Spouse Tax Form 8379

Tax time is here again and you have collected all of your W-2, W-4, 1099, and other assorted IRS forms and paperwork and are attempting to file your taxes. You and your spouse have been married for some time, you are the head of household and earn the majority of your household income, you and your spouse have children in your home which qualifies you to receive the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit and you believe that you have no outstanding tax liabilities your estimation, you should receive a much needed tax refund this year! You have forgotten about your spouse's past due child support bill of $9,000.00...and the IRS seizes your tax refund without warning, without notice, without hesitation. You feel as though your hands are tied and the sizeable amount of money that YOU paid out and should be getting back via the earned income tax credit is simply lost to you and your family forever ... not so! Read on to find out how you can file an injured spouse tax form #8379 and win back YOUR fair share of what the IRS intercepted.

Things You'll Need

• form 8379
• access to the internet
• your most recent filed tax return forms

Instructions

1. 

   If you have an unpaid tax bill from prior years, owe back child support or spousal support, or student loans, the IRS can grab your refund for the current year as payment on that outstanding liability. If you're married, then more than likely you file a joint tax return. If you have children or meet certain criteria, you may also be entitled to a sizeable tax credit or tax refund on that joint return. If either you or your spouse owes any past due tax bills, child support payments, or student loans, then it is nearly for certain that the IRS will try to intercept and seize that refund if either spouse filing has an unpaid liability. However, if only one spouse owes the liability, the other spouse is entitled to his or her share of the refund based on who contributed what. If the IRS has applied YOUR share of a refund against a liability or bill owed by your spouse, then you are what's termed as an injured spouse and you are entitled to your portion of the tax credit relief money.

2. 

   If the IRS has intercepted your tax refund or earned income tax credit and applied your refund money towards your spouse's delinquent bills or outstanding liability, or you're in the process of filing your taxes and you are concerned that the IRS may intercept your tax refund money, then you need to obtain tax form 8379, which is the Injured Spouse Claim and Allocation form. The form requests identifying information for you and your spouse, as well as detailed information needed to determine how much of the tax - and refund - has been contributed by and should be paid out to each spouse. The IRS makes the final calculations that divides the refund between you and your spouse and how much each of you paid in via your paychecks or income and how much each of you is entitled BACK in your tax refund. So, if YOU are the head of household and YOU contributed more than 1/2 of the household's income, then YOU are entitled to more than half of whatever the total tax refund should have been. If you now realize that you are an injured spouse for a tax return that has already been filed, then you should file form 8379 with the closest IRS Center for where you lived when you filed your tax return. If you're trying to prevent the IRS from seizing a refund on a return that you have YET to file (You have not officially filed YET) then you should attach Tax Form 8379 at the time when you file your taxes.

3. 

   Tax form 8379, the Injured spouse Allocation form can be found at the following: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8379.pdf You can copy and paste this address (or go to the IRS.gov website to search for it) into your internet browser to print out the form at home on your printer. It takes about 12 weeks to get your tax refund if filing an injured spouse tax form 8379. For more information, or for more help filling out your tax form 8379, you can contact the IRS toll free at 1-800-829-1040 (expect a wait time!).

4. 

   If you found the information provided in this article regarding the process or ability for one spouse to file tax form 8379 or an injured spouse claim helpful in any way, then please don't forget to post a comment before you leave this page! Thanks so much for reading and rating my work here on ehow!

Tips & Warnings

• contact the IRS to ensure that you are filing forms correctly before you send them in; or ask your accountant or tax preparing agency