My spouse and I file jointly. A student loan servicer wants me to enter my agi and her agi separately. How do I determine those numbers?

[joe.c.murphy@gma]

This is to apply for an income-based repayment plan. I presume taking our joint AGI and putting AGI (÷) 2  on each line would not suffice.

[Mike9241]

ask the loan servicer how to compute it.    tell them you file jointly and if any income is joint income how should that be split.  

[Hal_Al]

Q.  My spouse and I file jointly. A student loan servicer wants me to enter my AGI and her AGI separately. How do I determine those numbers?

A. TurboTax doe not have a standard worksheet that shows a breakdown of income by spouses. You may have to determine that manually. 

The CD/Download TurboTax software (but not the online versions) has a What-If Worksheet that may help.

- Go to forms mode - Ctrl 2 (forms mode) or click Forms Icon (upper right)

- Click on Open Form , in the search box type What-If worksheet, click on form, when it pops up, then click Open Form.

- On the What-If Worksheet on the right of your screen, there is a box for a MFJ vs. MFS comparison, check that box.  That will give you a breakdown of income by spouse.

As, @Mike9241  suggested you may want to ask your loan company how they want it.  Many lenders require you to file as Married Filing Separately, to qualify for an income-based repayment plan.

[rjs]

There is no such thing as a separate AGI for each spouse on a joint tax return. Your own AGI is the amount on Form 1040 line 11 of the tax return that you filed. Your spouse's AGI is the same. There is no standard way to allocate part of it to each spouse.

As others have suggested, ask the loan servicer what you should enter on their form. It might be necessary to file as married filing separately in order to reduce the loan payments on an income-based repayment plan. Many people in your situation do that.

HOWEVER, it's too late to change your 2022 (or earlier) tax return to married filing separately. You are not allowed to change from joint to separate returns after the due date of the return, which has now passed. For 2023 you have time to collect more information and figure out whether the reduction in the loan payments is worth the extra tax you will have to pay if you file separately. Keep in mind that income-based repayment does not reduce the total amount that you owe on the loan. It only reduces the amount you have to pay each month, which means it takes longer to pay off the loan.