Tax witheld falsely
My husband recieved a notice from the state of missouri child support div. about three years ago stating he was 5000.00+ behind on child supp.This was impossible because it comes straight out of his check(works for state). After proving he was not behind we kept getting notices from them still. They said not to worry that a comp. was kicking the notices out. This year when our income tax check didn't arrive we found out that Missouri was holding it for back child support. And that it had to be held for 3 months. They said it would be released in Nov. Now it is Dec. and they say the end of this month. They said that if I (the wife) would get a notorized letter stating I would not claim injured spouse to the I.R.S., that it might come early. Why do they need this letter, if it's for the IRS? Also,they had told me his wife must have applied for help and lied about him being a non payer. Can we not get anything for these people's negligence in not doing their job? How about interest on our money they've had for 8 months? I think they should have checked to make sure she wasnt getting it. Esp. after all our probs. with this.Thanks for your time
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Tax witheld falsely
Wow, this is a tough one.
The IRS will continue to offset the federal tax refunds (under the "Treasury Offset Program or TOP) as long as they are in receipt of a valid offset order from the state. And the IRS won't get into the middle of the debate about whether the child support is or is not owed. They will instead direct you to take it up with the state.
The "injured spouse" issue has to do with who has the right to the IRS refund. Your husband's child support obligation (to the extent it exists at all) is his debt, not yours. And the IRS cannot take your refund to pay his debt. But when you file a joint return, how much of that joint refund is yours, and how much is your husband's? That's what the injured spouse rules determine. The IRS allows you to file an Injured Spouse Claim and Allocation (Form 8379) on which you separate your income, deductions, credits, etc., and the IRS computes how much of the refund belongs to each spouse. They will be glad to return your portion to you, but as stated, they probably can't do anything with your husband's portion until the State of Missouri clearly (and in writing) informs the IRS to release the refund offset order. Here's what the Internal Revenue Manual says about this situation: "Complaint to Proper Agency. The majority of complaints involving TOP offsets require that the agency receiving the offset make the refund, and the IRS is generally not involved. Any resulting legal dispute would be between that agency and the debtor, and not the IRS." Basically, the IRS is saying, "its not our problem."
As far as Missouri child support issues go, that's out of my area of alleged experitse -- in fact I have trouble spelling Missouri.
As long as this remains a problem, you might consider filing "married filing separately." That way your refund would not be at risk. You can then go back later (within three years of the due date of the return) and amend to married filing jointly to recover any additional tax that you would pay by filing separately.
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