Injured
spouse relief is when one spouse's refund allocable to her/his income is taken
by the Government to satisfy child support, back taxes, an unpaid student loan,
etc. To request injured spouse relief you need to insure that if you file a
joint return, you include Form 8379 to claim injured spouse relief. This will
prevent the "injured" spouse's share of the refund from being offset
by the debt. Turbotax supports this form. Injured spouse (Form 8379) is
included under the Federal Taxes tab. Look at under the federal review for
other tax situations.
An injured spouse return can be
e-filed.
In TurboTax, type "injured
spouse" in the find box at the top of the page to find the correct
location to claim injured spouse. Alternatively, you can also navigate to this
screen by doing the following:
- Select the Federal Taxes tab (Personal
tab in the Self-Employed edition).
- Select the Other Tax Situations subtab.
- Scroll down the Other Tax Situations
screen until you see the Other Tax Forms section.
- Click on the Start/Update button to the
right of the Miscellaneous Tax Forms category.
- Click on the Start/Update button to the
right of the Report an injured or innocent spouse claim category.
Note also, the IRS indicates injured spouse
can extend a refund time for an additional 11 weeks if you file electronically,
14 weeks if you file on paper, and 8 weeks if you send it in separately and
your joint return has already been processed. Based on what I've read,
those are minimums.
You don't mention where you live. As
an additional comment, the rules are sometimes different if you live in a
community property state (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New
Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.) In those states, even with injured
spouse relief, the relief may not be as complete as it would be in other
states. If you live in one of those states, see IRS Publication 555 for a more
complete discussion of injured spouse in a community property state. It can be
found at http://www.irs.gov/publications/p555/ar02.html#d0e928
