First, I will give you some information regarding Married Filing Jointly vs Married Filing Separately. After that, I am providing information about the forms you can file so that your portion of the refund is not offset for your spouse's debt. The form you need depends upon what type of debt your spouse owes.
Married Filing Jointly vs Married Filing Separately:
Your filing status
is determined based on your status on December 31st, 2016. Please see the
additional information below to determine the status that is best for your tax
situation:
Generally, filing
jointly will give you a bigger refund or less taxes due. When you file
separately, your tax rate is higher and you won't be able to claim:
On top of that, if
you live in the community property states of Arizona, California, Idaho,
Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin, you have to
deal with community
property allocations and adjustments, which adds extra work and complexity
to your tax preparation chores.
Tip: Only taxpayers who were still legally
married as of December 31, 2016 are able to file as marrieds, whether jointly
or separately.
NOTE:
If you choose to file married filing
separately, both spouses have to file the same way—either you both itemize or you both use standard deduction.
Your tax rate will be higher than on a joint
return. Some of the special rules for filing separately include: you
cannot get earned income credit, education credits, or deductions for student
loan interest. A higher percent of your Social Security benefits may be
taxable. In many cases you will not be able to take the child and
dependent care credit. If you live in a community property state, you
will be required to provide additional information regarding your spouse’s
income. If you are using online TurboTax to prepare your returns, you
will need to prepare two separate returns and pay twice.
Innocent Spouse Relief or Injured Spouse Allocation
Injured Spouse is the more common form.
Injured Spouse.You are an injured
spouse if your share of the overpayment shown on
your joint return was, or is expected to be, applied (offset)
against your spouse's legally enforceable past-due federal
taxes, state income taxes, state unemployment compensation
debts, child or spousal support payments, or a
federal nontax debt, such as a student loan. If you are an
injured spouse, you may be entitled to receive a refund of
your share of the overpayment.
An Innocent spouse is someone who filed a joint return with their
spouse, and later is being assessed for taxes due that the spouse
understated the tax on the joint return.
Since you are newly married, I am thinking you may want Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation. See additional info below as well as a link to additional info for Innocent Spouse, if you would like more detail.
How to File Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation
Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation lets you
(the "injured spouse") get
back your portion of a jointly-filed refund if it's seized or offset to
pay your spouse's debt, if the IRS approves the form. The Injured Spouse Form
is filed when the overpayment on your jointly filed tax return was (or is
expected to be) applied to a past-due obligation of your spouse.
You must file jointly to use this form. Also,
filing an 8379 will delay your federal refund by up to 14 weeks.
To file this form in TurboTax:
-
Open your return.
(To do this, sign in to TurboTax and click the orange "Take me to
my return"
button.)
- In the Search box (upper right of
program), search for "injured spouse" and then click the
"Jump to"
link in the search results.
- Answer "Yes" to "Do you want
to claim innocent or injured spouse relief?" and carefully follow the onscreen
instructions for Injured Spouse. (click on screenshot below for more detail)
Note: Pay close
attention to the screens, as some of them apply to innocent spouse
relief, which is something else. Leave those questions blank if you only
want to claim injured spouse relief.
What if I've already filed
my tax return?
If you've already
filed and your return has been accepted, you will have to mail the form to the IRS using
TurboTax to create the form.
If you are using
TurboTax Online, open your return and sign in. On the Welcome home screen, select Taxes. On the Tax
Timeline screen, select Amend (change)
return.
If you are using the
CD/Download product, open your return.
When your return is
open, In the Search box, search for
"injured spouse" and then click
the "Jump to" link in the
search results. Answer Yes to Do you want to claim innocent or injured spouse relief? and
carefully follow the onscreen instructions for Injured
Spouse.
See more information below from the IRS:
IRS-Seven
Facts about Injured Spouse Relief
Innocent Spouse
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p971.pdf
