Financial Glossary
Form 8379 (Injured Spouse Allocation)
Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, is an IRS form filed when a joint tax refund is applied to one spouse's separate past-due obligations, such as child support, defaulted student loans, or certain back taxes. The injured spouse, meaning the one who is not liable for the debt, uses it to claim their portion of the refund. It allocates income, withholding, credits, and deductions between the spouses to determine the protected amount.
Problem & Application
An owner-operator filing jointly can be surprised when a refund tied partly to their income is captured for a debt that belongs solely to their partner. Form 8379 is the mechanism to recover the share attributable to the non-liable spouse. It can be filed with the joint return or separately afterward, and processing takes time, so it matters for households where one spouse carries pre-existing obligations.
In Short
When a joint refund is offset for a debt that is not yours, Form 8379 is the route to getting your portion back rather than absorbing the loss.