Injured spouse

[Mommyof2]

My husbands student loans went into collections. We went into a rehab program that will be finished up the beginning of July. I’ve been told I can claim injured spouse for some of the refund or request to file my taxes a little later. My question is if I file injured spouse would I still get EIC and CTC, or would that go to him? I made more throughout the year if that matters. 

[JohnW222]

The injured spouse allocation can allow you to receive these credits based on your own income, so you can still get (at least some, if not quite a bit) of EIC and CTC.

 You'll need to look at the line instructions in the Instructions for Form 8379, but here are some tips.

Line 14: Adjustments to income are taken from that section of the tax return (you may not have any).  If you do have any, apply them to the spouse who they belong to based on the earnings.  These are found in "Adjustments to Income" on Form 1040, line 8a.

Line 15: If the injured spouse has all the income, he or she should take all of the standard deduction (let the IRS adjust it if they want to when they get the form).

Line 16: For tax years 2018 and later, enter -0- in all three columns.

Line 17: Enter all credits --EXCEPT EARNED INCOME CREDIT -- under the injured spouse.  The IRS will figure the allocation for EIC, if it was claimed. 

And please consider the following, from TurboTaxDianeW:

Allocate as much as possible to the injured spouse based on the criteria below.  It really depends on whether you live in a community property state or not.

1. If you do not live in a community property state, and both of you have income, you can divide exemptions and deductions up any way you see fit. Enter most of the deductions under the injured spouse. It is possible the IRS may make some adjustments based on the income levels for each of you.  Let them do that when they receive it. 
2. If you do live in a community property state, community income would be split equally between the two spouses.  With respect to deductions, the deductions would be split depending on whether the expenses related to community income or separate income.
   • There are nine community property states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. 
   • Alaska is an opt-in community property state that gives both parties the option to make their property community property.

[kjekje42]

Hello,

Thank you for the information.  However, I am using Turbo Tax this year, and for whatever reason it is not allowing me to manually enter allocations on deductions and it is also saying that we do not have any personal exemptions to allocate, even though we have a family of 5.  I supported my husband in 2019 and I do not owe his debt obligations, but I need to know how to change the allocations.  Please help.

Thank you!