If you and your wife file separately, her refund cannot be offset for your college loan debt.
However, you can also file jointly and include the Injured Spouse Form 8379, and only your portion of the joint refund will be taken for the college loan debt. Your spouse will still receive her portion of the refund.
In most cases, it is more beneficial to file jointly if you are married and living together. If you decide to file jointly, please follow these instructions to complete Form 8379 in TurboTax:
- Login to your TurboTax Account
- Select "Take Me To My Return"
- Click "Search" in the upper right corner, then type "Injured Spouse" in the Search Box
- When the results populate, click the "Jump to Link"
- Click "Yes" where it asks "Do you want to claim innocent or injured spouse relief?"
- From here TurboTax will walk you through preparing an Injured Spouse Form 8379
