The last blog discussed how to establish innocent spouse relief on a joint tax debt, due to action by a “devious spouse”.  There is also another form of relief for the “honest spouse”, its called an injured spouse.

            An injured spouse is, where on a joint tax return on a given year produces a joint income tax refund, and that joint refund was applied to pay for previous year(s) of federal (or state) tax debt to the other spouse (before the marriage), and/or was applied to other previous debts (e.g. federal government sponsored student loans, child support, alimony/spousal support, etc.), the “injured spouse” that suffered on the joint federal tax refund, could be entitled to an apportioned refund, because these old tax (and/or other) debts were not his/her particular obligations. And thereby should not suffer from applying the entire joint tax refund to these old debts. Thusly, unlike the innocent spouse relief, where there is a joint tax debt and the “innocent spouse” could be relieved from the joint tax debt, due to the activities of a “devious spouse”, the injured spouse would be relieved and entitled to an apportioned part of a joint tax refund, if it was applied to the other spouse’s old tax (and/or other) debts.

            So, if you discovered that your joint tax refund was applied to your spouse’s old tax, and/or other old debts, then contact us at [email protected], and we would be more than happy to assist you in applying for your claim as an injured spouse.