Past due financial obligations can affect your current federal tax refund. The Department of Treasury’s Financial Management Service, which issues IRS tax refunds, can use part or all of your federal tax refund to satisfy certain unpaid debts.
Here are important facts the IRS wants you to know about tax refund offsets:
1. If you owe federal or state income taxes, your refund will be offset to pay those taxes. If you had other debt such as child support or student loan debt that was submitted for offset, FMS will apply as much of your refund as is needed to pay off the debt and then issue any remaining refund to you.
2. You will receive a notice if an offset occurs. The notice will include the original refund amount, your offset amount, the agency receiving the payment and its contact information.
3. If you believe you do not owe the debt or you are disputing the amount taken from your refund, you should contact the agency shown on the notice, not the IRS.
4. If you filed a joint return and you’re not responsible for the debt, but you are entitled to a portion of the refund, you may request your portion of the refund by filing IRS Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation. Attach Form 8379 to your original Form 1040, Form 1040A, or Form 1040EZ or file it by itself after you are notified of an offset. Form 8379 can be downloaded from the IRS website at www.irs.gov.
May 23, 2012 12:00 am
