Injured spouse

[oceanlovin'ea]

Client came in and was going to file MFS because husband is in process of working with attorney to settle his IRS problems.
She will lose her education credits for herself and her son in college if she files MFS.

Would it be a feasible idea to file MFJ and do injured spouse allocation? I read a post from last year that says refund can take up to 3 months to come back if injured spouse is added. Is that true? Why so long?

I don't think she would like to have to wait that long for her refund.

Linda F

[Jesse]

I guess depending on how much it might be worth the wait. I have several clients that we file w/ injured spouse and it does take quite some time for the refund to be released. Wisconsin is a Community property state however so the calculations are done differently from what I understand so we never know how much they will get back or how long it will take. Another factor w/ mine is the EIC so as well that might be part of the reason for the extra time.

[BOB W]

How long it takes to get the refund should never be an issue when you place it against what you will lose filing MFS.

[oceanlovin'ea]

I realize that. Client just wants to know when to expect her refund. She said in the past when she has done injured spouse it was back in a few weeks.

Will definitely do the allocation.

Linda

[ecb34691]

Injured Spouse forms are all handled in one IRS campus (used to be Phila) for the country. They use a "magic" formula to do the computation. With e-file, people tell us it's about 6 weeks, paper about 12 weeks.