“My husband owes backed child support, and I don't want my refund held up. Is there anything I can do?“ Would it be better for me to file separately?”----> You can file your return as MFS. This filing status may benefit you if you want to be responisble only for your own tax or it is results in less tax than filing a joint return. The MFS filing status provides fewer tax benefits than filing joint returns, but you will need to weigh the pros and cons and decide for themselves which is the best filing status. MFS filing status is generally perceived as the least beneficial of all the filing statuses. That's because MFS taxpayers are not eligible to claim the following tax benefits:tuition and fees deduction; Credit for the Elderly and Disabled Child and Dependent Care Credit;or EIC or etc. MFS taxpayers also have lower income phase-out ranges for the IRA deduction. Additionally, MFS taxpayers must both claim the standard deduction or must both itemize their deductions. In other words, one MFS taxpayer cannot claim the standard deduction if the other spouse is itemizing.
“I made $25,000 and he only made $2000. We also have 2 children together.”------>You can also file your return as MFJ(as your income is much higher than that of your husband; when a joint return is filed and only your husband owes a past-due amount, then you can be considered an injured spouse. Then, you need to file Form 8379 as long as if both of the following apply and you want a refund of your share of the refund on the joint return; yu are not legally obligated to pay the past-due amount;you made and reported tax payments such as federal income tax withheld from your wages or estimated tax payments, or claimed a refundable tax credit. Unless you file your return as MFJ, you can file Form 8379 with your return.Form 8379 is used by spouses filing jointly when one spouse has federal nontax debt (such as a spousal support, child support or federal and state tax debts.). Form 8379 is intended to help you without past-due debts keep some of the tax refund from a jointly filed tax return rather than seeing all of it disbursed debt holders. The form can only be used byyou, the injured spouse if you are not obligated to pay the past-due debt. |