We were eligible to receive a stimulous payment of $1200. $600 for children and the other $600 as a married couple. We filed an injured spouse form with our taxes as I have a defaulted student loan that I am solely responsible for. The loan holder took the whole entire stimulous payment (aside from the children's money). This can't be right, as the payment is clearly written out to both me and my husbands name and he bears absolutely no responsibility for the loan. The letter I have that explains the disbursemnet of the funds says that the US Treasury can't resolve any dispute regarding this kind of matter. The dispute has to be resolved with the agency that received the money. The loan co is telling me I have to do something about it with the Treasury/IRS... the Treasury says I have to do something about this with the loan co (because they have the money, it's already been paid out). The loan co is trying to tell me I had to file a second Injured Spouse form to get the full stimulous pymnt. The Treasury said that that is not possible, that was not an option, there is/was no need to file any further paperwork besides the 2007 tax return in order to determine eligibility for this payment. Where do I go from here? My husband is very mad that they took his half of the money. What to do? I have called them and it's like talking to a brick wall, they don't get it. I even faxed them the copy of the letter from the Treasury that explains that the Treasury cannot resolve any dispute and they are still not grasping this situation. They don't seem to understand that they took money that doesn't belong to them. The Treasury doesn't have the money anymore, I have to get the money back from the loan co, yet the loan co is trying to tell me my issue is with the Treasury. It's very frustrating.

If your name and your husband's name were both on the check, they can garnish the money YOU owe them because YOUR name is on the check, just like if they garnished your bank account, it doesn't matter if it's yours and his, he is on the same account as you.

Are you sure? Both our names were on our Fed refund and because we filed an Injured Spouse form, that whole refund was not touched. I didn't have any income either, only my husband did.

Contact the Tax Advocate at the IRS to intervene on your behalf, because I agree with you: your husband's simulus check should not have been send to the collection agency.

I was actually talking to my aunt today and the same thing happened to her, her husband owed money and since the stimulus check came with both their names on it, the government garnished more than half of it to pay off a debt.