Hello!

This year my wife and I filed our taxes as married file jointly. All the income was from her. We were due a refund, however the day it was to be deposited we were informed on the Where's My Refund? page for the IRS that it was offset. After a phone call, I learned that it was offset to the Department of Education for my student loans in default. Since all the income was hers, and the loan is mine (and from before we were married), is there any way she can reclaim that income? And if so, what would be the fastest way to?

Thanks in advance!

then she needs to file her return as an injured spouse; Your spouse may file form 8379for a refund along with her original tax return or she may file it by itself after you guys receive an IRS notice about the offset.she can file Form 8379 electronically. As she has already filed her tax return and is filing form 8379 by itself she will need to make sure that she includes on the form both you and her social security numbers and list them in the same order that you listed them on your original return. Additionally, both parties must sign the form.
So,Form 8379 is filed by one spouse the injured spouse on a jointly filed tax return when the joint overpayment was (or is expected to be) applied /offset to a past-due obligation of the other spouse.

Thank you for the reply! So my wife can file this 8379 form entirely separately after our initial filing, as long as we put our socials on it in the order they were on the original filing? I read some other information that made it sound like we had to completely re-file with an amended form and include the 8379 with that.

it is up to you; You can file separate or you can file a joint return with a request for injured spouse relief. Attach the form to the return in the order of the attachment sequence number and enter "Injured Spouse" in the upper left corner of the return. If you have already filed your return you can file Form 8379 by sending it separately to the same IRS Service Center where you filed your return.

There are different rules for each state so it is important to understand how your state handles injured spouses.