Form 8379 is for Injured spouse, not to be confused with innocent spouse. An injured spouse seeks to protect his or her share of the joint refund in case it gets seized or offset due to the other spouse's debts or unpaid obligations.
Couples can file Form 8379 (injured spouse allocation) along with their joint tax return if they expect their refund to be seized. The injured spouse can also file the form separately from the return if they find out after they file that a refund was seized. The form has four parts:
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Part I is a series of yes-or-no questions to determine whether someone really is an injured spouse and, if so, how to proceed
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Part II provides information about the joint return that produced the refund in question
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Part III is for determining exactly how much of the refund is attributable to the injured spouse and should be released by the IRS
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Part IV is for use only if the form is being filed separately from a tax return; the injured spouse signs and dates this section
Part I addresses eligibility and asks several questions-
- Enter the tax year for which you are filing this form.
- Did you (or will you) file a joint return?
- Did (or will) the IRS use the joint overpayment to pay any of the following legally enforceable past-due debt(s) owed only by your spouse?
- Are you legally obligated to pay this past-due amount?
- Were you a resident of a community property state at any time during the tax year entered on line 1?
- Did you make and report payments, such as federal income tax withholding or estimated tax payments?
- Did you have earned income, such as wages, salaries, or self-employment income?
- Did (or will) you claim the earned income credit or additional child tax credit?
- Did (or will) you claim a refundable tax credit? (see instructions)
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