My husband owes back child support, will IRS take my return to pay my husbands back child support

[christinekharris]

Will it's take my tax return if my husband owes back child support 

[Vanessa · Accepted solution]

It is possible that they could take your refund for his back child support.  

If you are trying to avoid having your portion of the refund garnished, you have 2 options:

1.  You may file an Injured spouse form which will allow you to request your portion of the refund back; or 
2.  You can file as Married Filing Separately.  

There are pros and cons to both.  

When filing the Injured Spouse Form with your return, it can take 11-14 weeks for your return to be processed.  However, you will still be able to claim all the tax credits and deductions that you would claim normally with a Married Filing Jointly Status.

When filing Married Filing Separately, you may lose some tax benefits such as Student Loan Interest Deduction Education Credits and Child & Dependent Care Credit.  Married Filing Separate vs Jointly

To determine if Married Filing Separately would be beneficial to you, you can also use Taxcaster or create a dummy TurboTax account and create 2 separate returns.