-
IRS Form 8379- Injured Spouse Form
Posted on April 7, 2009 by MANIFEST ME! in GeneralHow long does it take to process a form 8379? That was the question I asked this year back in February. I also asked how is a tax refund
treated when form 8379 has been filed? I got many answers from experienced tax filers.
So, the IRS states that it taxes 11 weeks to process a return if file electronically with form 8379. Then 14 weeks to process are return with form 8379 if mailed. You are only concerned about the process it takes if you actually had to file this form.
Why would you file form 8379? Well, if you are married and your spouse has past due obligations that have affected their tax refund
My first question was, does it really take 11 weeks to process if it is file electronically. Some of the answers that I received stated:
· I mailed my injured spouse form after filing my return by e-file and it took exactly 2 months to receive my tax refund
· Last year, the time frame degraded to 16 weeks.
· Yes, it takes that long. I filed my brother’s last year and it took that long.
Then when asked if you file form 8379, where you happy with the amount that were refunded back to you, was it fair? Some answers I received were:
-
No, I have never e-filed a injured spouse form. I have always mailed mine in after I filed my tax return (because then it only takes about 8 weeks to be processed)than if you file it with the tax refund
-
Yes, I was very pleased with the results because I always got all of my tax refund
-
We did last year. We filed taxes last year and then sent in the 8379 on May 12th. We finally received the refund the first week of September. We were very happy with the amount received, but the time it took and the runaround made us weary. It is a great service, I am fighting about my student loan because it has been paid but they are still showing an outstanding amount. Still this year it isn’t resolved, hopefully by next year it will be. This year we filed the 8379 electronically with our return so here is hoping that it will be much quicker.
Well based on experience I can tell you the most honest way to file your taxes when a spouse have a past obligation that may affect your return such as, defaulted student loan, child support, taxes owe to IRS, or something along that line is to file as married filing jointly and submit a form 8379 with your return.
From experience the processing time for 2009 when a return was file electronically was 8 weeks to receive the tax refund
As far as the results as to the tax refund
Be sure to use Turbo Tax for all of you tax filing purposes! I prepared many returns this year for friends and family and I always used turbo tax. So, as I experience different situations with different individual, I will continue to share the experiences.
Helpful websites:
Go here to check the status of your refund by selecting “Where is my refund“. You must have at hand your social security number, your filling status and the exact amount of your refund.
-
What is the mailing address to mail form 8379 after you have filed your taxes?
If by itself after you filed your original joint return on paper then to the same Internal Revenue Service Center where you filed your original return.
If by itself after you filed your original joint return electronically then to the Internal Revenue Service Center for the area where you live.
With an amended return (Form 1040X) or other subsequent return then to the Internal Revenue ServiceCenter for the area where you live.
Here is a link to find your local Internal Revenue Service center: http://www.irs.gov/file/content/0,,id=105693,00.html
I hope this is what you are needing. Thanks for visiting my site!
TaWana Stegall
A word to everyone that read this post:
The IRS stated that the return was still processing weeks after the check had been received. So, just because you see still processing please call and refer to reference code 1201 does not mean that they have not processed your return.
I take it that there sites are not updated on a daily basis. So please don’t totally put your trust in “where is my refund” to give you the full status on when you will receive your tax return.
Also, this specific tax return was asked to be direct deposited and a check was still received. So, even though you requested a direct deposit when you completed your tax return doesn’t mean you will necessarily see a direct deposit. You could very well possibly receive a check and more than likely if you filed form 8379 with your return, you will get a check.
Things will work in your favor! Don’t sweat it!
TaWana Stegall
Thanks for visiting my site!
I pray that you have gain very well needed information =)
Unfortunately, the Where’s My Refund site won’t work if someone filed Injured Spouse. Once it “processes” with the IRS, if injured spouse is involved, it moves on to a human in the injured spouse division. Also, if your injured spouse refund is more than $2,000 it can only be issued in a check form, so don’t expect a direct deposit if this is the case.
my wife filed an 8379 in March and the IRS got it in April. in June she got a letter that said she needed to send another 8379 with a W2. the letter was dated May 20th and she got it in June. it said she had 30 days to comply. she faxed it in on June 6th.they took all of it on the 12th before the 30 days compliance? we got the Injured spouse last year so what’s the deal now?
You can call the IRS and see what happened to the return. Are you sure your wife did not have a debt that would have caused the IRS to withhold her refund as well? I would suggest that you contact the IRS for an explanation. Make sure that they received your form for the current year. It should not be too late to file a form 8379. You can file it after the fact and the IRS will still issue a refund.
Make sure you contact the IRS.
Thanks-
TaWana S.
yeah, she’s in the process of talking to a tax advocate right now. she said she’ll call the IRS Monday since the tax advocate hasn’t gotten back to her yet.all her Federal debts are paid so that leaves just me. can we still get the refund back even though they took it out? she’s sent in 2 8379 already.
thanks for the quick reply btw!
I’ve been interested in taxes for longer then I care to admit, both on the private side (all my working life-time!!) and from a legal standpoint since passing the bar and following tax law. I’ve provided a lot of advice and righted a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve posted makes complete sense. Please carry on the good work – the more individuals know the better they’ll be armed to deal with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.
Can you explain how to fill out the Injured Spouse form? My spouse didn’t work last year, so I was the sole provider for our family. I’m under the impression you just split everything 50/50 on the form. Is that correct?
I am curious how the injured spouse claim affects our 4 children. I am a SAHM that goes to school full time. We have 4 children between us and I go to school full time. My income is less than 15k this year, will I still be able to get anything back or should I just let it all go?
When I filed an insured spouse claim last year my I had worked the entire year of 2008 and and my husband did not. He was out of work and I was the one who was the injured spouse. I thought maybe since I made the income that I would get all of the return back. The IRS still split the return down the middle. Exactly down the middle, they applied half of the return to his obligation and they sent me a check for the other half. The status on the IRS website never changed and the number they tell you to call, I called it. The only thing that the IRS tell you is that it takes up to 8 weeks to process an eletronic return and up to 14 weeks to process a paper filed returned.
If you worked and made atleast 3,000 you have to file a return whether you get something back or not. The IRS will penalize you if you do not file a return and if you don’t file and owe it will charge interest. if you are a full time student, make sure you get your the form that states how much they received on your behalf and claim that on your taxes. That will help a good bit!
Good luck =)
TaWana S.
I used Turbo Tax .. Click on the Free file. I will walk you through it. A lot of people think you have to pay for Turbo Tax but you don’t under certain income requirements.
So start witht he Free File link. When it gets down to special form, select the injured spouse form and make sure you that you just answer the questions as stated. Its really self-explanatory.
I have had to process with the injured spouse form since I married my husband. Our refund was not split down the middle…it was based on the income and expenses we each paid for percentage wise. I also got the complete credit for each of our children; that did not go to his debt. Also, our return WAS deposited electronically. All totaled, it took about 7 weeks.
I filed an injured spouse form last year and they did not calculate the return appropriately. They should only be taking the portion of the taxes that would have been returned to the non-injured spouse. (Ours wasn’t split down the middle, I’m still not sure how they arrived at the number they did.) I called them and they filed an ‘appeal’ to have it recalculated and sure enough another check was issued to me for the remained owed to me. Unless you live in a community property state they shouldn’t be simply dividing your refund in half. Call the the number on the letter they send (about offsetting your spouses debt with his/her tax refund)/
Update: they messed up this year’s return too. They offset the amount that should have been returned and returned the amount that should have been offset. I’m in the process of filing an appeal now. I called and on the third try I got ahold of someone helpful and it should be moving along towards being resolved.
The irs took our tax rebate in 2007 and 2008. This year I’m filing injured spouse form 8379 along with my taxes. Can i still file to be reimbursed for the 2007 and 2008 years…and ifso, do i do it the same way…thx
I believe you should submit the form for the previous tax years. You for each year. You don’t have to submit the form with your return, just as long as you send the form in. Your return should not have to be amended. Just file the form for each tax year
More than likely they will process it and send you a check. Then the other party will be responsible for paying back the money to the IRS. Good luck =)
TaWana
Tanya,
I pray that all works out for you. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. You just don’t know; It is helping a lot of people! Thanks for your contribution to the post.
TaWana S.
Many of you say that you have contacted the IRS and spoken to a person!! I keep getting directed to the standard where’s my refund status line and all it tells me is my refund has been offset. No duh??!! I filed my 8379 mid Feb. And I have no idea where it is at or if they even received it. Who can I call to check status and find out where the processing is at? Website tells me the same thing. I want to speak to a human preferably in injured spouses dept.
My husband and I filed our taxes before the last week of January 2010…we knew that I needed to include the injured spouse form so I filled it out and included it along with injured spouse indicated on the upper left hand of the first page. We still do not have our refund and have no indication of when we will receive it. We are being told that it is being processed and to call back in three weeks. This is our down payment on a home for the two children that we have adopted from foster care and now we have missed out on the homebuyers credit that we might have received. We have been at Reference code 1201 for almost two months now.
I dispise the phishing emails they appear to get more determined by the day I recieve 2 or 3 on a daily basis and report them to phishtrackers a site I stumbled upon that lets you report them anonymously.
@Karen
I’m very sorry to hear about your experience. I have a sister that filed injured spouse form this year (2010) with her taxes in the last week of January and it is June. She spoke with a live person and they keep telling her three weeks everytime she calls. I don’t know the magnitude of what’s going on in the IRS office this year but it is ridiculous that is taking so long. I hate that!
TaWana
@Aaron, I am so sorry to hear about what’s happening with the Injured Spouse Claim this year. I guess it is a different experience for everyone. I don’t know what’s going on with the IRS this time around. You would think that they would issue some time of media coverage to advise the people on the status of their returns since there have been so many issues with people not receiving their refund due to it being an injured spouse claim. Last year it didn’t take that long, this year is flat out ridiculous!!! Good luck!
TaWana S.
We e-filed and sent Injured Spouse by mail. They had already processed offset; letter received. Went to IRS…sent another Injured Spouse twice just to make sure. No one could tell us anything except, it may be possible to reverse. I contacted creditor immediately and said Injured Spouse has been filed DO NOT process check; heard nothing.
As far as I’m concerned requiring the I.S. form filing allows the government, and Child Support Services to fraud the spouse that has nothing to do with the debt out of hard earned money. NO spouse would want to pay child support their not responsible for.
Still waiting to hear from the IRS. There needs to be clear rules on this subject. And if the Injured Spouse files the form whether check has been sent or not the money should be returned.
need to download form 8379 and 8857 with instruction.
It seems with technology that they should be able to tell who owes what debt an who doesn’t… if I want to pay my spouses debt let me decide that with out the IRS involved..I shouldn’t have to chase my hard earned money.
I tried calling Irs and didn’t get far just a dozen other #’s to call..I file the IS form w taxes but my tax lady didn’t do it correctly and now I sent amendment in Aug and have heard nothing..website still says offset.
Do I keep waiting? Where do I begin to get my money? How long does Irs hold it until they send it to Child Support?
To Tawana S. comment in regards to you only working and being the injured spouse and your spouse did not work all year. What I would like to know is even though you filed the form they still took half of your refund to pay off his debt. I live in a community property state and I have never filed as a injured spouse and I always do my own tax returns but a little unsure about this form. Please help, if someone can.
@Angel…. Yes that’s what happen. They split the refund right down the middle. Then this last year in 2010; processing the injured spouse took about 5 months instead of 8- 14 weeks. They went way past the 8-14 weeks and the only answer they would give is that they are processing it. So it’s different every year.
Thanks!
many thanks for sharing this superb post. Please hold up the following weblog as ensure that must be an example of my preferred site in my reader, with thanks
Thanks for your reply to my question. Its upsetting but it is what it is so I can’t do much but I stil will get whatever is left over once the debt is paid. I do have another question when filling out the form. I am planning to file my taxes all at the same time on turbotax so they actually give you the amounts to allocate so is it just half of the amounts that I need to allocate since in Wisconsin I think it is 50/50. Please let me know if someone can help answer this question. Thanks again!
I did my sisters taxes using Turbotax and it automatically adds the proper notation when choosing the forms. All the dependent and expense went on her side but they still took split it 50/50. But it atomatically adds the appropiate information to the form when e-filing.
Oh because I wasn’t sure cause when I tried it out on turbo tax this year just to see what I needed to do, it had asked what amount of this $0000 would be allocated to my spouse so I am assuming I needed to enter half of the amounts it was asking me. Please correct me if I am wrong plus at this time turbo tax form 8379 is not ready until the end of the month so I will not know what it looks like complete. Thanks again
i was actually trying to catch the irs before they offset me, by sending in the 8379 with my tax forms. But i had no idea i was supposed to write “injured spouse” on the top left hand corner. Will this hold me up even more???
sorry, one more question. i have filed 8379 several times now (usually only when they money has already been taken), and since my hubby is a stay at home dad, i usually get a full reimbursement because i am the sole bread winner. is this “splitting the debt” thing new? should i only expect to get half of his debt back?
This is in a community property state. The refund has been split the last two years they have filed.
Tawana
“This is in a community property state. The refund has been split the last two years they have filed.
Tawana”
Is this in response to my questions?
I have just filed thru turbo tax and filed 8379. We are newly married and none of the children I have are his so I allocated all child tax credit to me and my education credit since I am the one in school. I live in PA which I do not believe to be a community property state. I only allocated the 400 making work pay credit to me. He made a little less than I have. Can I expect the IRS to allocate the way I did on the form or will they take money from my children to pay his debt?
From my experience: I filed this form last year for the first time because i was newly married and he owed back child support. He worked, so anything that that HE would have been getting was offset for childsupport.(example: refund would have been 5K but due to his debt, they took all of his portion, which wasn’t much, which left me with 4500) I still received a refund for what I would have been getting. It was not split down the middle. This would only happpen if you were in a community property state. However, in my case, both of our names was on the check when it was ready to be deposited and only my name is on the bank account so my bank sent it back and I received a check (I was too mad!!). Total amount of time: Filed 3 Feb/received refund by direct deposit 26 March and then sent back/received check around 18 April. I electronically filed the form with my taxes.
This year I had to do the same thing, with the exception that he did not work at all…i am the only one that worked, and I went to school full time. I did my taxes using turbo tax this year and when it came to the part of how much money I wanted allocated to mark, I put 0 because he had no income which meant that any refunds received should be soley mine….which is the reason for using the injured spouse form. It protects YOUR portion of the refund. Putting down 0 simply means that all info entered is from your W2 and he had no wages so there is nothing to offset. Last year, his wages were used for the offset, not mine. I still received the child tax credit, etc…so i still received a nice sized refund. For those of you who live in a community property state, I would recommend filing seperatly because if they are going to split the refund down the middle anyway, you may as well file seperate from him. I know that this is the worst way to file when married, but in my situation, i did it both ways, and I lost all of my credits for child care etc…..which i was not willing to do.
Here’s the kicker: In order to receive a nice sized refund, you must be the one to have had made the most and be the injured spouse. Otherwise, if his income is more, and he owes, they are going to take whatever he was due back, which would be a sizable amount since he made the most money. If u made around the same thing, most likely it will be split down the middle because now, both of your incomes are driving the refund equally. If you made more, you will get more, and if he made nothing, you will get all. Last year, my husband did not make much, which meant that most of the income that was filed came mostly from me. I must tell u though, last year, with his income tacked on to mine, put us in a higher tax bracket and that is another ballgame. However, this year i am in a lower tax bracket which means that I qualified for more credits that i did not receive last year. Hopefully, everything is still the same.
Not at all a tax expert, and the info that I just provided is from personal experience. However, I went to a tax preparation class and did many taxes for many, many people on base. ( i am in the military) Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to add clarification to anything that I have posted……
I recently sent in a I.S. form after getting the offset papers. but I didn’t write I.S. on the there. Will they process my refund? Will give me all my money back, since I didn’t know my spouse owe child support? I live in Alabama.
I have student loans that have been paid yet they keep saying they have not. Last year they went after my husband’s refund. I say my husband’s refund b/c I am currently a stay at home mom and it is his hardworking money. We sent in the injured spouse form by mail last year b/c that was the first time we found out our taxes were offset. It took them 8 weeks to process it. They gave my husband all of the money that was due to him and he used our two children. I called the IRS everyday. Yes, I bugged them like crazy and I wrote down every time I called, every name, & every id number. That way I could tell the next one I spoke with so and so, id number blah blah, and they said this. Makes it look like you know what you are talking about. I figured if I owed the IRS they would be all over me while charging interest why not be all over them demanding my husband’s money. I told them this as well. I mean come on it’s true right!!??!! They told me once that the person who was working on it had so many days to finish and that they must have a heavy work load. I told them not my problem put it with someone else then. They finally told me I could file some kind of report to get that person to hurry up. They said I could do it on the last day or do it that day I was calling. I said I want to do it now. They filled the complaint. My husband got his tax refund about a week later in the mail. We have filed this year e-file and sent in the 8379 with our tax return. We are offset again. SO we will just see how long it takes before I have to start calling them. I am telling you guys you just have to or they will take their time. Just be sure and take down everything they say and who you are speaking to. Good luck to every one and God Bless!
Thank you so much for that info Ty. Also last year did you mail the injured spouse form or file electronically when you did your taxes? You do not know how frustrating this is to have to deal with injured spouse. It is all new to me as a married person. Before this year I recieved refunds in 3 weeks. The thing is my husband made about 8k less than me he worked only 9 months out the year, so I am hoping that they dont try to split down the middle. By right the children are mine and the education credit is mine since I am the student. I filed on 1/27 and for a while the WMR stated refund to be deposited 2/15 as of 2/08 it states refernce code 1201 so I am, guessing they noticed the injured spouse.
To keuna: Since you are filing I>S form seperate I dont think you have to
Re: Scarlett
I was informed by the Michigan Guarantee Agency that I still owed $3300 on my student loan but was advised that the IRS may only take $2800 of this money since $500 was in collection fees. They urged me to send in the additional money to them if it is not offset by the IRS. Otherwise next year they will collect that $500 plus interest and other costs.
Check into this to see if that is what happened in your situation. Just a thought.
I live in Ohio and last year (2009 tax year) was my first year to file “married-jointly”. I e-filed as I did not know the process. We then received the letter that informed us that the entire amount was to be offset. I then mailed in the 8379 form and then a month and a half later received a letter re: the reversal of the offset and then the check.
Filed end of Feb-check received end of May. Amount was all on my side and check was issued in both of our names. My husband did not work at last year (Found and started new job a month ago!) and owes back child support of course
I just e-filed all forms this year on Feb 9th and will update all on how it turns out!
My husband applies for the injured spouse because of my student loans. I do not work. He always gets back the full amount. They never split it 50/50. Does it makes a difference if you were or were not married at the time you obtained the debt.
We used h&r block to file electronically on jan 29 since we were not sure of doing the injured spouse form ourselves. I am looking at the paper and wondering if they did it right. I owe the debt but had no income, my husband had all of the income. I do not live in a community property state. Our standard deduction was 11400 and they allocated 5700 to each of us. we had 4 exemptions and they allocated 2 to each of us. We had 2800 in credits and they allocated 1800 to him and 1000 to me. I`m not sure if this sounds right or not. I sure hope they filled it out right since the lady wasnt sure and kept going and asking another coworker questions. I dont want them to take anything more than what is owed as “my fair share”.
My husband also filed a 8379 with his return….we’ve been married a little over a year and I’m the one who owes the student loan. He filed married/jointly with our dependant. I had no income to claim for last year. He ck’d the WMR status site and it states he should recieve a refund check by March 8th 2011. He e-filed on 02/14/11…is this because they haven’t seen the I/S form? Will it still take 11 weeks for a refund. Thanks for the help
RE: J.E.
Under where is my refund, the system gives a defaulted date based on when you were accepted. Normally 72 hours after your refund has been accepted: The status of the refund normally changes the week of the direct deposit on Tuesday Night. So check WMR on Wednesday. If you have a Friday Direct Deposit date with out any special messages then I would say you are good. But since you filed an injured spouse form with your return more than likely on Wednesday your return would probably yield a topic code to let you know for sure about the processing of your refund.
So, I would say you got this date because they have not processed your return. Your return has been received, which after 72 hours it gives you an estimated date. Then after it is processed, if you would receive a direct deposit it would read your refund has been directly deposit and should post on a certain date and if you have receive it by (a certain date) then contact the IRS. But, if it gives you no date and give you that processing code then it could possibly take up to 11 weeks. The injured spouse forms are processed manually so therefore, if you e-filed you will probably get that error after this Tuesday.
Good luck!~
With form 8379, the refund only gets split down the middle if you live in a community property state. All other states, the injured spouse would receive their part only if they worked that tax year.
Re: Gianni
Thank you!
TaWana S.
So we filed January 25th with the form and still have found out nothing…..Has anyone else received any info or received their money yet?