Under the law, state and
federal agencies refer to the IRS the names of taxpayers who
are behind in their child support payments, tax, and loans. Your tax refund may not be
sent to you if you are delinquent in child support payments or you have a past due
federal debt (such as a student loan).
The Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service, which issues
tax
refunds, has been authorized by Congress to conduct the Treasury Offset Program. Through
this program, your tax refund or tax overpayment that you asked the IRS to apply to next
tax year's estimated tax, may be reduced by the Financial Management Service and offset to pay any past-due child support
or federal agency non tax debts you may owe.
An offset will not occur until the IRS has verified your
tax refund amount and certified
your tax refund for payment by the Financial Management Service. As a result, the IRS can no longer determine before certifying your
tax
refund whether or not it will be offset to pay a non tax debt. If you owe a past due child
support or federal agency non tax debt, you should contact the agency you owe to determine
if your debt was submitted for an IRS tax refund offset. If your debt was submitted to
the Financial Management Service for a tax refund offset, as much of your tax refund as is needed to pay off the debt will be taken
by the Financial Management Service and sent to the agency you owe. Any portion of your
tax refund remaining after offset
will be issued in a check, direct deposited, or credited to next tax year's estimated
tax as
you requested.
The Financial Management Service
will send you a tax notice if an offset occurs. The notice identifies
your original tax refund amount, your offset amount, the agency receiving
the offset, and the address and telephone number of the agency. The IRS will
not be informed of the agency receiving the offset but the Financial Management Service
will notify the IRS of the amount taken from your tax refund. You should
contact the agency shown on the notice if you believe you do not owe the
debt or you are disputing the amount taken from your tax refund. You should
contact your local IRS office if your original tax refund amount shown on
the Financial Management Service offset notice differs from the tax refund
amount shown on your tax return.
If you filed a joint tax return and you're not responsible for the debt, but you are
entitled to a portion of the tax refund because you reported income, tax
payments, or tax credits on
the tax return, you may request your portion of the tax refund by filing Form 8379,
Injured Spouse
Claim and Allocation.
Attach Form 8379 to your original
Form 1040, Form 1040A, or Form 1040EZ, or file it by itself
after you are notified of a tax refund offset. If you file Form 8379 with your
tax return, the IRS will
process it after they are notified by the Financial Management Service of a
tax
refund offset. Allow six to eight weeks
from the date you receive the offset notice for the IRS to reverse the offset and issue
your tax refund or tax credit.
If you are filing Form 8379 by itself, it must show both spouses' social security
numbers in the same order as they appeared on your tax return. The
"injured" spouse must sign the tax form. Please follow the instructions on
Form 8379
carefully and be sure to attach the required tax forms to avoid delays. Send the claim to the
IRS Service Center where you filed your original tax return. The IRS will compute the injured
spouse's share of the joint tax refund for you. If you lived in a community property state
during the tax year, the IRS will divide the joint tax refund based upon state law.
