
Quoting
soupysara
I am currently having my taxes offset by the dept of Edu for student loans. Which has been ok because it was getting them tidied up quicker than I could making pmts. However, we have had some serious setbacks recently and I simply MUST get my return this year.
I was told the injured spouse form will not help us due to the nature of my husbands income and deductions.
We are considering claiming his return as either Single or Head of Household because Married jointly loses the return to offset, and Married separately loses EIC (w/o which there is no return to speak of anyway).
Apparently either status will get us the exact same dollar amount. Unsure why as he would get the Addtl Child credit if he is "single" and will not if he's HOH, but that's what the prep software says.
Anyway, my point/question is this. What are the legal ramifications of saying either? Will the IRS flag us long as I file from a different address? (Do I even have to file as I only earned $7500 myself last year, paid no federal on it and the tax software says I owe 0 and have 0 coming?) What is the safest AND most beneficial thing to do?
(OH, I'm in Indiana)
Thank you to anyone who can help me!