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chrclay11
New Member

We filed single but married last year 2015, my wife owe money on her taxes from previous years before we got married.

My question is  if we file joint married this year will the IRS come after me her husband
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1 Reply
AndreaG
New Member

We filed single but married last year 2015, my wife owe money on her taxes from previous years before we got married.

Yes. If you file married filing jointly, the IRS will apply your joint tax refund to back taxes that your wife owes. However, if you want to file jointly then you can file an injured spouse claim in order to get your portion of the joint tax refund, if you meet the requirements to file this claim.

There are specific requirements that need to be met in order to qualify as an injured spouse.  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 screens will ask you questions about your injured spouse claim. Answer all these questions in order to file this claim.

Please refer to the following FAQ to learn more about filing this claim in Turbo Taxhttps://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3326788

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