Taxes: Filed jointly, he owes child support, took everything last year, if I work, will they take my money too

Question

I filed for injured spouse and have heard nothing back either. I didn't work, only went to school, and I wasn't even sure if I was entitled to anything. But we have two kids together, how can they take what we get back for our children?

Answer 1

The 6 month delay is for the ORIGINAL spouse, not the current one.  That's the woman waiting for the check for the child support to arrive.

The current spouse faces an 8+ week dealy (not 6 months) for the form to be processed.

For the current spouse, the injured spouse form depends on where the refund is coming from and what state they are in.  (The rebate this year does not appear to depend on anything.)  Normally, if the poster is not working and does not live in a community property state, she is out of luck.  If she does live in a community property state, she can be entitled to 1/2 of the refund that doesn't come from EIC.

As for why, he has a debt.  It's for child support for children before he had more with you.  Your children aren't first in line and he shouldn't have had more unless he could pay for all of them.

PS, Yes you can file MFS.  Alas, you have a child--the MFS return specfically disallows EIC, so many people do not consider that an option.  (Try the returns both ways.  If there is no money left on the table, file MFS and skip the form.)

Answer 2

It can take up to six months to process the injured spouse form.  You should get half the rebate back.

Answer 3

So long as he owes back child support they will continue to go after the tax refunds.  The only way to get the EIC credits for your children together is to file married jointly.  If you file married seperate, you will get less back & will not qualify for the EIC credits.  The only way to get any part of the refund back is to file the injured spouse form.  However, if you had no recordable income, then you are not entitled to recieve any of the refund, it's all his.  And the child support can take every penny of what is considered his.  I do understand that you claim children that are yours & his together on the tax return.  But it doesn't work that way.  The children are not the tax payer.  They don't really care why you are getting that money back, all they care about is WHO is getting the money back.  And even though your name is on there as his spouse at the top of the page, if you didn't work at all during that tax year, your just another dependant of his.  Now once you start working, you will start seeing a share of the tax refund returned to you.  But it is proporinate to your incomes.  If he made 20k in 2008 for example and you only made 10k in 2008, then your share is only 1/3 of the total refund.  And the other 2/3 is considered his and will go to the back child support.  I hope that helped some, I deal with that stupid injured spouse form every year.  And it takes 4-12 weeks to get your money returned to you.

Answer 4

He owes.  If you work,  your return is protected by filing "injued spouse".  But if you don'y work that does not apply.

His children from the first marriage are always put first.  Be was/is a deadbeat dad.

You can STOP all future child support tax taking by PAYING UP WHAT THE DEADBEAT OWES.

Answer 5

It also depends on if you are in a community property state or not. If you are then half his income is yours. On the tax form it asks who the child is the dependent of the taxpayer or spouse. Mark spouse.You will not get much if anything because you did not work. It is good for your family to get the debts paid off. If you file separately you can get the child tax credit but lose eic and everything else. You might consider trying it. What does it matter if you lose eic? You were losing the money to the child support anyway.

Answer 6

An injured spouse claim takes at least six months to process as they must wait to determine if the person has remarried, which would give some rights to the newest wife  If you live in a community property state you may have rights to half of his earnings, which will protect a portion of the return/rebate.