Injured (but now also deceased) Spouse plus state tax questions

[joules0101]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KS & CO

My husband passed away in November. I will be having a tax professional do our Federal taxes. I owe child support and am very well aware that my refund will be taken (no biggie) and that my husband (if he were alive) would be filing a form 8379 as an Injured Spouse.

So, does this still work the same when the Injured Spouse is deceased?

Also, I will have to file state income taxes for CO & KS. Will my child support debt also be taken from my state income tax refund (again, no biggie!)? Do these states offer the Injured/Innocent Spouse relief as well? Is it a different form?

I'm also kind of considering having the tax preparer only file our Fed. taxes and, so I can save on the amount of money that will be refunded to my child's father (so he gets more and not less due to filing fees), I was thinking about filing State Income taxes myself. Is this feasible or just too confusing? Any thoughts on this idea would be appreciated!

Finally, there were only 4 previous threads! Where are all the older threads in case I wanted to do extra 'research' on my own?

 

[davew128]

Well given that the refund when there is a deceased spouse goes entirely to the surviving spouse no matter what, exactly how do you propose to use an injured spouse form to protect your late spouse's share of the refund? No matter what, it would come to you and you alone making it fair game.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KS & CO

My husband passed away in November. I will be having a tax professional do our Federal taxes. I owe child support and am very well aware that my refund will be taken (no biggie) and that my husband (if he were alive) would be filing a form 8379 as an Injured Spouse.

So, does this still work the same when the Injured Spouse is deceased?

Also, I will have to file state income taxes for CO & KS. Will my child support debt also be taken from my state income tax refund (again, no biggie!)? Do these states offer the Injured/Innocent Spouse relief as well? Is it a different form?

I'm also kind of considering having the tax preparer only file our Fed. taxes and, so I can save on the amount of money that will be refunded to my child's father (so he gets more and not less due to filing fees), I was thinking about filing State Income taxes myself. Is this feasible or just too confusing? Any thoughts on this idea would be appreciated!

Finally, there were only 4 previous threads! Where are all the older threads in case I wanted to do extra 'research' on my own?

I somewhat agree with Dave as far as the injured spouse situation is concerned. It would be the call of the executor of your husband's estate to decide whether or not to file the injured spouse form. If you are the only heir and there are not alot of creditors due money from your husband's estate then Dave may be correct. However if you and your husband kept your finances separate, there is an estate, and there are debts that the estate is responsible to cover, or other heirs, then the executor may have an obligation to file the injured spouse form.

As far as trying to file CO and KS state returns yourself, rather than having your tax professional handle it....I honestly wouldn't recommend that. Its difficult to handle multiple state Tax returns properly. They are often more complex than federal returns, particularly when you are dealing with part year or non resident returns. You could end up paying quite a bit more tax than you would legitimately owe.