Re: Tax witheld falsely

Wow, this is a tough one.

The IRS will continue to offset the federal tax refunds (under the "Treasury Offset Program or TOP) as long as they are in receipt of a valid offset order from the state. And the IRS won't get into the middle of the debate about whether the child support is or is not owed. They will instead direct you to take it up with the state.

The "injured spouse" issue has to do with who has the right to the IRS refund. Your husband's child support obligation (to the extent it exists at all) is his debt, not yours. And the IRS cannot take your refund to pay his debt. But when you file a joint return, how much of that joint refund is yours, and how much is your husband's? That's what the injured spouse rules determine. The IRS allows you to file an Injured Spouse Claim and Allocation (Form 8379) on which you separate your income, deductions, credits, etc., and the IRS computes how much of the refund belongs to each spouse. They will be glad to return your portion to you, but as stated, they probably can't do anything with your husband's portion until the State of Missouri clearly (and in writing) informs the IRS to release the refund offset order. Here's what the Internal Revenue Manual says about this situation: "Complaint to Proper Agency. The majority of complaints involving TOP offsets require that the agency receiving the offset make the refund, and the IRS is generally not involved. Any resulting legal dispute would be between that agency and the debtor, and not the IRS." Basically, the IRS is saying, "its not our problem."

As far as Missouri child support issues go, that's out of my area of alleged experitse -- in fact I have trouble spelling Missouri.

As long as this remains a problem, you might consider filing "married filing separately." That way your refund would not be at risk. You can then go back later (within three years of the due date of the return) and amend to married filing jointly to recover any additional tax that you would pay by filing separately.