@ladychristian3 wrote:
Thank you for your response to my question. I have not filed my 2019 taxes yet because I am due a refund, and concerned that the IRS will withhold all/part of it to offset the debt he owes. I filed an innocent spouse claim in March in hopes to have his tax debt detached from my name. On the IRS's website, they encourage you to file your taxes if you've filed an innocent spouse claim and state they will not withhold any of your refund, but to be honest, I don't really trust the IRS and wondered if this was really true.
I haven't looked for that specific page, but if the IRS says they won't hold back a refund while your claim is being considered, they probably mean it. The problem is that, depending on when you mailed the form, it might still be in a pile of unopened mail, since many IRS service centers were closed for the coronavirus and are only starting to open up now. So if you e-filed a tax return, it's possible it might actually be processed before the innocent spouse form. There's no way to really know. You might want to delay filing your tax return, but I can't really say for sure one way or the other.
