department of education took my taxes????!!!!!!!?

[az_sun_flower]

the department of education took my taxes, and ive read so much saying there is nothing i can do...i read a post a girl wrote and she said "file a hardship claim with both the collection agency and the IRS, as well as a dispute"... does anyone know what this means or what the outcome is? the department of education told me had i made ONE more payment i would have been free and clear....i asked why no one told me that they simply said " we dont offer that information unless you ask" pffffft come one payment after payment after payment after payment, i find it hard that there is nothing i can do, considering i pay every month on time. not to mention it was my husband that has the student loan debt that we continue to pay back. any response is greatly appreciated. thank you

[Judy]

Uh, if the loan had always been paid on time, it wouldn't be in default status and the refund wouldn't have been taken. Sounds like he had been in default and you were now trying to get back current which takes something like a year of on time payments to do, and hadn't reached that yet. If you keep paying on time for what he owes, then next year you won't have a problem.

If it's your husband's debt, you could file an injured spouse form and get back whatever part of the refund is due to your own income and withholding.

Good luck.

[Othniel]

Pay off the student loan and be done with it. This thing will haunt you until it is paid off so just take care of it and don't waste time, energy and funds fighting something like this.

The other way, besides paying off the loan, to avoid the IRS keeping your refund is to calculate within $1000 what you owe in taxes and then claiming enough dependents on your W-4 that you will actually break even or owe the IRS money. That way there is no refund to take or so little that it doesn't matter. Most people don't like this method but it works.