I owe restitution to the federal government that has not yet been fully satisfied. My husband and I filed "married filing jointly" for our tax refund. Can our tax refund be "garnished" to satisfy this debt? We live in Texas.

I do believe they can garnish income tax when delinquent payments of child support or school loans are involved. It has happened to someone I know and there was no fair warning. She received a letter stating what happened to the return.

I didn't feel like paying my Student loans back but then I got a letter saying they were going to take my tax return if I did not pay them back. I paid them back after that.