I am married and have two children and I am the provider of my household. I pay child support for my daughter and I was wondering if I claim married will they take all of it even though I am in arrears?
2007-11-25 09:26:21 · 2 answers · asked by mel 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
Irs has been taking all of it, but if i filed married they can still take all of it? i have been filin single and not claimimg my kids, but this year i am going to claim my kids since I am the only one working this whole year.
2007-11-25 09:37:51 · update #1
Sounds like there are a variety of things wrong with the way you've been filing.
That said, if you are saying you want to file a joint return with a current spouse, and you are in arrears on child support to some other person who has custody of your daughter, it would be possible for your spouse to file an injured spouse form with the return, then the part of the refund that was due to their income wouldn't be taken. But if all of the income was yours for the year, then that wouldn't make any difference and all of the refund would be taken for your back child support, whether you filed joint or married filing separately, your only two legal options. And even if you illegally filed as single, it would just cost you more in taxes, and they'd still take all of your refund.
2007-11-25 09:54:29 · answer #1 · answered by Judy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you file married filing jointly and do nothing else, any refund can be applied to back child support (assuming the state has told FMS to tell the IRS to withhold the money).
Since your new spouse is not responsible for this debt, he/she may file form 8379 to ask the IRS to allocate the refund as your half and their half and that they want their half refunded to them.
Your additional details don't make sense. As soon as you got married, your only choices for filing were MFJ and MFS (married filong separate). You can't file single. (Unless of course you are talking about the W-4 withholding allowances.)
As for claiming your kids on your return--which kids? You can't claim the one you are paying child support for unless the custodial parent says you can (and signs form 8332 so you can attach it to your tax return). And if you do get the form 8332, it only gives you the dependency exemption and the child tax credit.
The IRS rule for grabbing refunds is that you owe. It has nothing to do with what filing status you used. The form 8379 only works if you live in a community property state and/or your spouse worked during the year.
2007-11-25 17:35:11 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋