My wife owes student loans we file jointly. She didnt work this year, I am the only income so with an injured spouse how much can the federal government take?

[IsabellaG · Accepted solution]

Unless you live in a community property state, when you complete the Injured Spouse Allocation, you will allocate all your income and withholding to you, if that is the case.

 You should receive your full refund from the IRS.

[j-camerlin]

Thank you.. I live in Ohio which i think is not a community property state.

[IsabellaG]

That's correct!

[SweetieJean]

"You should receive your full refund from the IRS".
Is that strictly true? After all, OP get a personal exemption for Spouse and a bigger Standard deduction.

[j-camerlin]

Whats OP? and strictly true? I qualify for earned income and also have a 18 year old  step daughter that just turned 18 in December and I also have 12 year old step one and 14 year old step daughter. Which i claim as my dependents for the child income.

[IsabellaG]

Even if you didn't file a joint return and instead filed as Married, Filing Separately,  you would be entitled to claim an exemption for your spouse, if she has no gross income, is not filing a tax return, and is not able to claimed by another taxpayer as a dependent. When you complete the injured spouse allocation, allocate her exemption to you. No matter how the Standard Deduction is allocated, none of the refund will be allocated to your spouse. Again, I am assuming that none of the income and withholding can be attributed to her.

[macuser_22]

@j.camerlin   -   "OP" = Original Poster

[jedihunter0211]

I also live in Ohio and my husband has been filing an injured spouse claim for the past 3 years due to my student loan debt. So far, he's received his refund in full with absolutely zero being taken from it. This, however is because I do not work. So therefore all of our income comes from him. This is my first year using Turbo Tax to file with an injured spouse claim..so hoping it works on as good as Jackson Hewitt did.

[j-camerlin]

Awesome news my wife didn't work at all in 2016 we filled jointly and i filed injured spouse so im really hoping i get all of mine back.

[bcooper976]

So the standard deduction (12600) is allocated to the injured spouse and zero to the other party?

[macuser_22]

The standard deduction has noting to do with injured spouse whatsoever.  The standard deduction reduces taxable income on the joint return.  Injured spouse protects any refund that one spouse would have received if they had filed separately instead of jointly.

[adamwaynestephen]

Actually it has plenty to do with it. If I have to cut the deduction in half when I do the allocation I am losing a lot of what I would have received. The question is how much to allocate if you don't get the question kindly refrain from answering

[macuser_22]

As I said, it is as if you filed separately.  The standard deduction for  Joint is $12,600, the standard deduction for separate is $6,300 (half or joint) and that is what gets entered on line 15 on the 8379 form if you used the standard deduction (itemized deductions are much more complicated).

Line 15.   If you used the standard deduction on your joint tax return, enter in both columns (b) and (c) one-half of the basic standard deduction shown in column (a).

If you are not sure what to enter, refer the the 8379 instructions for guidance.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8379/index.html">https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8379/index.html...>