Artículo Offset against debts.. Offset against debts.

id="en_US_2025_publink1000170621"> Offset against debts. If you are due a refund but haven’t paid certain amounts you owe, all or part of your refund may be used to pay all or part of the past-due amount. This includes past-due federal income tax, other federal debts (such as student loans), state income tax, child and spousal support payments, and state unemployment compensation debt. You will be notified if the refund you claimed has been offset against your debts. Joint return and injured spouse. When a joint return is filed and only one spouse owes a past-due amount, the other spouse can be considered an injured spouse. An injured spouse should file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, if both of the following apply and the spouse wants a refund of their share of the overpayment shown on the joint return. You aren’t legally obligated to pay the past-due amount. You made and reported tax payments (such as federal income tax withheld from your wages or estimated tax payments), or claimed a refundable tax credit (see the credits listed under Who Should File , earlier). Note: If the injured spouse’s residence was in a community property state at any time during the tax year, special rules may apply. See the Instructions for Form 8379. If you haven’t filed your joint return and you know that your joint refund will be offset, file Form 8379 with your return. You should receive your refund within 14 weeks from the date the paper return is filed or within 11 weeks from the date the return is filed electronically. If you filed your joint return and your joint refund was offset, file Form 8379 by itself. When filed after offset, it can take up to 8 weeks to receive your refund. Don’t attach the previously filed tax return, but do include copies of all Forms W-2 and W-2G for both spouses and any Forms 1099 that show income tax withheld. The processing of Form 8379 may be delayed if these forms aren’t attached, or if the form is incomplete when filed. A separate Form 8379 must be filed for each tax year to be considered. . An injured spouse claim is different from an innocent spouse relief request. An injured spouse uses Form 8379 to request the division of the tax overpayment attributed to each spouse. An innocent spouse uses Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief, to request relief from joint liability for tax, interest, and penalties on a joint return for items of the other spouse (or former spouse) that were incorrectly reported on the joint return. For information on innocent spouses, see Relief from joint responsibility under Filing a Joint Return in chapter 2. . Amount You Owe When you complete your return, you will determine if you have paid the full amount of tax that you owe. If you owe additional tax, you should pay it with your return. . You don’t have to pay if the amount you owe is under $1. . If the IRS figures your tax for you, you will receive a bill for any tax that is due. You should pay this bill within 30 days (or by the due date of your return, if later). See Tax Figured by IRS in chapter 13. . If you don’t pay your tax when due, you may have to pay a failure-to-pay penalty. See Penalties , later. For more information about your balance due, see Pub. 594. . . If the amount you owe for 2025 is large, you may want to increase the amount of income tax withheld from your pay or make estimated tax payments for 2026. See chapter 4 for more information. . How To Pay You can pay online, by phone, by mobile device, in cash, or by check or money order. Don’t include any estimated tax payment for 2026 in this payment. Instead, make the estimated tax payment separately. Insufficient funds. The penalty for making a payment to the IRS that was dishonored is $25 or 2% of the dishonored payment amount, whichever is more. However, if the dishonored payment amount is less than $25, the penalty equals the amount paid. This penalty applies to all acceptable forms of payment if the IRS doesn’t receive the funds. Pay online.