How does your spouses child support affect your taxes?

[Bella2021]

My spouse recently became disabled, and cannot work. He has filed for disability, but the child support has remained the same amount and I cannot afford the payments every month in addition to all of our bills. He does have some arrears and I previously worked for child support so I know they take tax returns. If we file as married filing jointly, will my tax return be taken to pay on his arrears for child support? His case worker cannot answer our questions, and right now we are in dire need of my tax money as the loss of income has severely affected us. 

I will loose a lot of benefits that I had as filing as single, unless I file as jointly. What are the benefits verse the other? We are considered common law in Colorado, and filed joint bankruptcy together. Other than that, we are not officially married.

[DoninGA]

Child support received or child support paid is not entered on a tax return so has no bearing on a tax refund or taxes owed.

[Bella2021]

That is correct, but the IRS intercepts taxes for child support arrears, so my question is, can they intercept and take my taxes to if I file as "Married filing jointly" instead of "Married filing separately."

[DoninGA]

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@Bella2021 wrote:

That is correct, but the IRS intercepts taxes for child support arrears, so my question is, can they intercept and take my taxes to if I file as "Married filing jointly" instead of "Married filing separately."

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If you file as Married Filing Jointly, the IRS can seize the tax refund for back child support owed unless you include a Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation with your tax return.  Including the form will prevent the IRS from seizing your portion of the tax refund.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for a Form 8379 - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/accessing/help/how-do-i-file-form-8379-injured-spouse-allocation/0...