Husband has school loan on default. We filed joint taxes. They kept state refund. Can they keep federal refund

Answer 1

Yes they will, you can file a form 8379 Injured Spouse Claim to allow your portion of the refund to be protected from his debt
here is a link to the form, if it is not sent with the return it will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks to process
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8379.pdf
You complete the form as you are the Injured Spouse

Answer 2

They can and almost certainly will.

You can protect your share of the refund by filing an Injured Spouse Allocation, Form 8379 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8379.pdf.

To ensure that you get relief you MUST file a paper return and attach the Form 8379 to the return. DO NOT E-FILE! Although the Form 8379 can be processed after the fact, doing so will result in substantial delays in getting your portion of the refund back to you. An ISA filed with your paper tax return should see your refund in 6 to 8 weeks in most cases. After the fact filing can take months or even years to recoup.

The IRS and FMS will determine how much of the refund you are entitled to. If you live in a community property state it will normally be half of the total refund. If you don't live in a community property state, it is generally apportioned based upon your relative income compared to the total income on the joint return.

Answer 3

They sure can.

If some of your federal refund was due to your income and withholding, you can file an injured spouse form and you'd still get your share back if you don't have any outstanding debts that they'd take a refund for.

Answer 4

Yes. They will have his social security number "flagged" and every time the government owes him money (ie a refund) they will keep it.

After a while, they will also take it out of his check. They are allowed to take up to 20% (before taxes) in garnishments per check until they are paid off.

Answer 5

Yes, because you and your Husband are filing jointly anything you his soc. on it will be flaged, and any monies that you would be getting back are now going to go to pay his defaulted student loans, if you contact this student loan agency that is your husband, they might be willing to rehab him and take off the I9 credit rating, which is worse than claiming bankruptcy, they won't garnish his wages 15%, and you would get your returns back....But if you default with the Dept. of Educ...things will get much worse...Because its Gov't money they will seek any manner to get the money back...IN THE LONG RUN CONTACT THE AGENCY IN WHICH HIS STUDENT LOANS ARE HELD!!!