Help with taxes!?

Question

My husband works and I am a stay at home mother. We filed our taxes and it all is going to be taken for his back child support. I don't find that fair. We have 2 kids in the house that we got EIC for and he pays his child support every month (it was taken for past child support) But yet all our refund goes straight to his ex! Is there a way to keep the EIC for us but send the refund of his earnings to her?!

Ok for all you people who have your harsh little comments to make about him being behind. It was of no fault of his own, he worked for a company for 3 yrs and they faithfully took out child support, then we started getting letters stating he was behind, the company filed bankruptcy and we are in court now dealing with this issue. So he isn't neglecting his other child, or not wanting to pay. You all need to learn to have an open mind alittle more, not everything is as it seems. Hope you all have a GREAT day!

The company he was working for that declared bankruptcy and was "taking" it out of his check wasn't...hard to tell where that money went.

Answer 1

You can apply for the Injured Spouse Claim, what amount and whether you will be eligilble to get any of the refund will depend on whether you had any withholding from wages that you earned also whether you live in a community property state

Complete the form and submit it, the IRS will make a determination whether you are able to receive a portion of the refund
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8379.pdf...

Answer 2

You can file an Injured Spouse Allocation, Form 8379. You should ONLY file a paper return and attach the Form 8379 to the return and mail it in. This will take about 8 weeks to process.

You can file a Form 8379 after the fact but it may take several months to process the claim. Even then, if it's for child support and has already been paid over to the child's guardian it may not be possible to roll back that transaction at all.

Whether or not you will get anything back will depend upon how much your relative incomes are, how much was withheld from each of your wages, and whether or not you live in a community property state. Sadly, as a stay-at-home mom, with no outside income it's not likely that much would be allocated to you unless you live in a community property state.

Whether you feel this is fair or not kind of depends upon your perspective, wouldn't you think? I'll bet his other kids think it's pretty reasonable given that he's behind on support.

Answer 3

In order to file Injured Spouce, you had to have earned income. In order for you to receive EIC, you must have earned income. That's why it's called EARNED INCOME CREDIT. If he is behind in child support more than 500 dollars, and the courthouse he pays through files Tax Intercept papers, then they will take what is owed and send you the rest if there is any. There is no way to get around this unless you work and have income to report on your return. It sounds unfair, but it's the way things are. If you can prove hubby was not behind on child support, then you COULD fight the withholding. If not, then, he needs to take care of the kids he made before he made yours. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I go through the same thing every year. Finally my hubby is caught up.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p504/ar02.html#d0e563

Answer 4

No.

He needs to make good on his owed child support. If he can't do that in any other way, then it's going to come out of your tax refund.

The EIC is just part of the calculation. It's not like it's a separate check. So, there's no way to earmark it.

Part of getting married to someone that has kids is knowing if they owe child support. If you don't want to be part of that, then you'd best not get married. It's sad, but it's also sad that your husband didn't (wasn't able to?) pay his court-mandated child support.

Answer 5

Start filing separately.