Income taxes

[barkley]

If you are in arrears with child support, the first thing they do is take your federal tax refund. A coworker hasn't seen his refund in 5 years. My brother was in jail because he lost his job. He owed a year because he hooks up with someone and lives off them instead of getting another job. Still owes child support and he was in jail until it was paid. Mom had to bail him out, and the next time he lost his job, he lost his tax refund for I don't know how long to pay it back the 2nd time (managed to stay out of jail.)

i know someone whose mother's estate was a time consuming pain to settle b/c child support enforcement caught wind of mom's passing and her will was set up to be evenly split between her adult kids-one of whom owed a ton of back child support. the bulk of what would pass to them was the equity in the mom's home that needed to be sold. every penny had to be accounted for on that estate to ensure nothing was being sheltered from child support for the one brother's share.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Just an update for anyone interested. I called the phone number on the notice, they're claiming I have a defaulted student loan, which I definitely do not.

I contacted the servicer via email (I always try to have a paper trail) to clear everything up. If they fight or it becomes a ridiculous battle, I can file an injured spouse form and we should get most of our refund back since the income was all DH's. I'm hoping to get it resolved before having to file an amended return with the IRS but we aren't going to wait forever for them to fix whatever mistake they made.

I wish our money would be deposited tomorrow but at least now I know what I'm dealing with. Thanks everyone.

 

[mrodgers]

Mom CHOOSE to bail him out. As far as I know bail is never an obligation.

He would be in jail indefinitely until she bailed him out is what I meant.

Seems kind of silly, how is one suppose to pay his back child support if one is in jail and can't work?

 

[disneychrista]

He would be in jail indefinitely until she bailed him out is what I meant.

Seems kind of silly, how is one suppose to pay his back child support if one is in jail and can't work?

But it was still her choice.

I don't disagree, it seems odd to expect someone to pay a debt while they are in jail but on the other hand if they had just paid their obligation in the first place then there wouldn't be an issue.

 

[mrodgers]

But it was still her choice.

I don't disagree, it seems odd to expect someone to pay a debt while they are in jail but on the other hand if they had just paid their obligation in the first place then there wouldn't be an issue.

You are completely missing the point and that's ok. He was in jail and he was in jail until he paid his child support of which he could not do because he couldn't go to work or get a job because he was in jail so mom bailed him out. That is all I said and nothing else needs to be read into it to create another unrelated argument.

He also lost his job as I said which can happen to anyone including you or I. He did chose to shack up with some bar chick and live off of her, but there are others that lose their jobs and go to jail because the jobs they can find to replace pays less than the child support they need to pay.

Just my story example you may have read in another thread, my child support and spousal support was going to be $1200/pay and I didn't make that much to begin with. There is nothing other than having a good enough lawyer that I could have done about that. I also would have gone to jail because I didn't make as much as they ordered me to pay had I not had the lawyer I had (which could have happened if she had called that lawyer first.)

 

[Searc]

You are completely missing the point and that's ok. He was in jail and he was in jail until he paid his child support of which he could not do because he couldn't go to work or get a job because he was in jail so mom bailed him out. That is all I said and nothing else needs to be read into it to create another unrelated argument.

He was in jail BECAUSE he didn't pay what he owed his children.

 

[mrodgers]

He was in jail BECAUSE he didn't pay what he owed his children.

Just... never mind... I can delete the post instead of having everyone create unrelated arguments if you'd all like.

 

[disneychrista]

You are completely missing the point and that's ok.

Pretty sure I got the point exactly.

He did not pay his obligation. He was arrested and jailed. Mom choose to bail him out.

What part of it am I missing?

 

[mrodgers]

Pretty sure I got the point exactly.

He did not pay his obligation. He was arrested and jailed. Mom choose to bail him out.

What part of it am I missing?

Please stop. Thanks

 

[TAX GUY]

I wish folks not in the business would stop giving tax advice or their two cents on what they THINK is happening or what can/can't be done.

OP, glad you called the IRS to ask. You may be surprised to find perhaps DH did in fact have an old student loan that may have been forgotten. Unfortunately, the burden of proof is with the taxpayer. You should be able to get your transcripts from IRS.gov to see exactly what they're talking about. From there, you can dispute it but be ready to prove it isn't yours/his. Based on my experience, these things do get resolved, but it typically takes some time. If you had a professional preparer, they can help (assuming they have the proper credentials and can speak with the IRS on your behalf), or if self prepared, you may have a little paper work to do. Good luck.

 

[Searc]

I wish folks not in the business would stop giving tax advice or their two cents on what they THINK is happening or what can/can't be done.

OP, glad you called the IRS to ask. You may be surprised to find perhaps DH did in fact have an old student loan that may have been forgotten. Unfortunately, the burden of proof is with the taxpayer. You should be able to get your transcripts from IRS.gov to see exactly what they're talking about. From there, you can dispute it but be ready to prove it isn't yours/his. Based on my experience, these things do get resolved, but it typically takes some time. If you had a professional preparer, they can help (assuming they have the proper credentials and can speak with the IRS on your behalf), or if self prepared, you may have a little paper work to do. Good luck.

How can you prove something you don't have and never did? The burden of proof should be on the person claiming whatever it is.

 

[TAX GUY]

How can you prove something you don't have and never did? The burden of proof should be on the person claiming whatever it is.

This is the IRS, they'll ask a series of questions and request various documents. The burden of proof is always with the taxpayer, never the IRS (or state agency). Sucks, but that's how they roll. If they are showing in their system something reported to them, then that's why they're taking the action they are. If it was mistakenly reported under the wrong SS number, then proving the name and SS number shouldn't be too difficult. It'll get worked out, it'll probably just take a little time.

 

[MamaBelle4]

I wish folks not in the business would stop giving tax advice or their two cents on what they THINK is happening or what can/can't be done.

OP, glad you called the IRS to ask. You may be surprised to find perhaps DH did in fact have an old student loan that may have been forgotten. Unfortunately, the burden of proof is with the taxpayer. You should be able to get your transcripts from IRS.gov to see exactly what they're talking about. From there, you can dispute it but be ready to prove it isn't yours/his. Based on my experience, these things do get resolved, but it typically takes some time. If you had a professional preparer, they can help (assuming they have the proper credentials and can speak with the IRS on your behalf), or if self prepared, you may have a little paper work to do. Good luck.

He didn't have any college loans - he never went. And it's in my name. It will probably take months to get resolved so I think I might file the injured spouse form to get our money while I fight the loan servicer and IRS.

 

[iivye]

OP, my husband signed up for auto payments for his school loan to get a lower interest rate and he didn't realize that part of the agreement was that any IRS refund automatically goes to the student loan even though we are in good standing. It was a shock to him and I when they did it for the first time last year but now I figure we are just paying it off faster.

 

[TAX GUY]

He didn't have any college loans - he never went. And it's in my name. It will probably take months to get resolved so I think I might file the injured spouse form to get our money while I fight the loan servicer and IRS.

I misread that in your follow up reply. Good luck, if the loan servicer is in error, then it shouldn't be too bad to correct, but if they don't budge, it could take a while.

 

[JaxDad]

I started a federal government job back in the late 90s. The first two paychecks were to be mailed to me, before I was officially enrolled in the electronic payment system. I never received the two checks, and after some minor hassles, the amounts were just deposited in my then-established epay.

Fast forward about a year. I submitted my tax return, and I think I owed some small amount, so I enclosed a check. A few weeks later, I received a check back to me from the IRS for a much larger amount. After going round and round with the IRS for a few weeks, it turned out that my two paychecks had been mailed to me at work--a federal building in which the IRS had offices--and the IRS had somehow received them and deposited them as pre-payments on my taxes. The checks were made to me, I never signed them, and I did not fill out any kind of pre-payment form. It was crazy.

 

[Colleen27]

Ugh, good luck to you. We had something similar happen with a loan that was (supposed to be) in deferment. We filed the non-obligated spouse papers, since this was while I was still in school (hence the deferment) and had no income, and after a number of phone calls, the servicer did get the status straightened out before the next year's tax filing season. It came as a shock when it happened but it didn't take too terribly long to get things resolved well enough. Hopefully it goes as smoothly for you!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Just an update for anyone interested. I called the phone number on the notice, they're claiming I have a defaulted student loan, which I definitely do not.

I contacted the servicer via email (I always try to have a paper trail) to clear everything up. If they fight or it becomes a ridiculous battle, I can file an injured spouse form and we should get most of our refund back since the income was all DH's. I'm hoping to get it resolved before having to file an amended return with the IRS but we aren't going to wait forever for them to fix whatever mistake they made.

I wish our money would be deposited tomorrow but at least now I know what I'm dealing with. Thanks everyone.

At least you know it's the loan servicer that is showing the issue rather than the IRS.

The only things I can think about with respects to a defaulted student loan other than the obvious glitch is something like an EFT/automated payment with the payment details having changed like maybe an account number, a card number, an expiration date, etc that maybe prevented a payment in the past or recently to not go through. I know you said your account is in good standing it's just I could see a skipped payment that was made up. It could be buried somewhere in your account maybe not even visible anymore. I'm not saying that's likely or that is the case just thinking about how it could show something like that. I'm leaning more towards a glitch on the loan servicers side showing you defaulted somewhere at some point. I do however understand the PP's point regarding advice though this one seems to be less tax advice and more perceived clerical error issues.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just an update for anyone interested. I called the phone number on the notice, they're claiming I have a defaulted student loan, which I definitely do not.

I contacted the servicer via email (I always try to have a paper trail) to clear everything up. If they fight or it becomes a ridiculous battle, I can file an injured spouse form and we should get most of our refund back since the income was all DH's. I'm hoping to get it resolved before having to file an amended return with the IRS but we aren't going to wait forever for them to fix whatever mistake they made.

I wish our money would be deposited tomorrow but at least now I know what I'm dealing with. Thanks everyone.

So glad you called and so glad you know about that form. Although I admit that I'm not sure, is it an Injured spouse or Innocent spouse form you want? I get those two confused all the time unless I look it up.

 

[MamaBelle4]

So glad you called and so glad you know about that form. Although I admit that I'm not sure, is it an Injured spouse or Innocent spouse form you want? I get those two confused all the time unless I look it up.

It is the injured one. Thank you.