One of the requirements for filing an injured spouse claim is that you would need to have earned income and/or taxable income that entitles you to a refund and this is something that can change from year to year. If you are entitled to a refund and you meet all of the requirements, then you should be able to file the claim.
In order to
qualify:
- You need
to file married filing jointly
- You cant
have any legal responsibility to pay your spouse's debt.
-
You would need to have earned income and/or taxable income that
entitles you to a tax refund unless you or your children are
eligible for and claiming the American Opportunity tax credit. The
American Opportunity tax credit is a partially refundable tax credit that
you can qualify for if you are pursuing your first bachelor's degree and
meet the requirements to claim the credit. Please refer
to the questions on page 1 of Form 8379 for more information. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8379.pdf
- The debt
has to be subject to collection through the income tax return
- Please refer to page 1 of the IRS instructions for Form 8379,
under the heading, "are you an injured spouse?" to review
these requirements. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8379.pdf
To
file this claim in Turbo Tax:
- Log
into your account
- click
"take me to my return"
- click
on the "federal taxes" tab
- click
on "other tax situations"
- scroll
down to "report an injured or innocent spouse claim" and click
"start"
- The
next screen that comes up says, "do you want to claim innocent spouse or
injured spouse". answer yes
- The
first screens that come up are for filing an innocent spouse claim. Just go to
the bottom of these screens and click on "continue".
- The next set of screens
will ask you questions about your injured spouse claim. When you get to the screen that says, "tell us more about your situation", it is important to include a checkmark next to each of the situations that apply to your situation.
Please refer to the following FAQ to
learn more about filing this claim in Turbo Tax. https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3326788