Will filing injured spouse work if a married couple both have debt but his is much greater and she is the only one employed?

[feliciab1976]

we both have child support from previous relationships but mine is only a little behind and his is huge, he is a student full time and i work.how much do i allocate if most of the return is his school tax credit?

[feliciab1976]

i supported us through the last year alone but he is claiming a education learning credit

[Critter]

Possibly ... it can't hurt to file a form 8379 ... you can't do any worse than having it all lost.  Allocate all of the school credit to him since it is his.

[feliciab1976]

Even if I live in a community state and I'm the only provider?

[DianeW · Accepted solution]

When it comes to the community property state rules for injured spouse see below.

1.  If you do live in a community property state, community income would be split equally between the two spouses.  With respect to deductions, the deductions would be split depending on whether the expenses related to community income or separate income.

That's not as difficult as it sounds, you can list the credit under him and the let the IRS do the processing which they will do in the end any way.  Once they have finished they will send or release any refund you may have coming after applying it to your unpaid delinquent debt.

For more information you can use the instructions by using this link: Instructions for Form 8379