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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Tax Refund taken to pay for Student Loan Debt

Many people have already filed their taxes this year -- particularly those owed refunds. Because of rising taxpayer identity theft, it's a smart idea for anyone to file quickly. However, some taxpayers are discovering the refund they thought was coming has instead has been taken to pay their student loan debt. Here's a sample of questions recently sent to Credit.com:
  • From Amber: Is there anything I can do to stop my whole federal refund from going to my student loans? ... I've just set up a payment plan, but I really need my refund this year.
  • From Peggy: I was looking forward to my tax refund as it will help with bills and much needed things for the baby. It was accepted and ... now after digging around I found out they are sending it to the U.S. Dept. of Ed. for my student loans which I thought were in deferment. Now this is causing me and my kids a hardship but they refuse to send me the refund... What can I do to get my refund owed to me?
  • From Luis: I heard that if your student loan is in default and they are intercepting your taxes, it goes towards interest of the loan. Getting your loan out of default you can then get the intercepted (money) back. Is this true? Is there some info on this?
First, some background: If you are in default on your federal student loans (which by definition means you are behind by 270 days or more), the Department of Education can take your tax refund using the Treasury Offset Program. This program authorizes federal payments such as tax refunds or Social Security income to be intercepted in whole or in part to pay debts owed to other federal agencies. There are some limited consumer protections, but debtors aren't always aware of them.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! A piece of government that actually works correctly.

Don't default!

Not everyone should go to college - these are examples of some that should NOT have gone to college!

Anonymous said...

How do you know that 1:05? I guess you are able to judge them on that limited info, wow you must be so smart

Anonymous said...

the government getting rich off young people and meanwhile has anyone from wall street been sentenced to prison for the billions they took?
Didn't think so! bohica!

Anonymous said...

They should be held accountable - if you borrow the money you should pay in back. Graduated college in 1987 and paid back my loan over 7 years $105.95 every month! Still remember writing that check every month!

Anonymous said...

1.05 that statement is wrong just because you fall behind on student loans is not all there fault look at the economy job are almost none full time jobs are not being offered due to the obama care employers have to pay easier to have a staff of part time workers then have to pay for health care and have you seen the price of a 4 year collage instate is 29k to 35k a year when you have rent food utilities to pay on a part time job until you can get the one you trained for you can fall behind easy

Anonymous said...

1:26 - plenty of info provided...they didn't have the brains to know a debt is a debt...that they agreed to!

Hope you didn't waste money on college - you obviously don't get it either!

Anonymous said...

1:45 - a debt is a debt - they should have managed their withholdings better if they needed the money that bad....all that takes the same smarts as graduating college. Maybe they also messed up by picking an un/underemployable majot!

Either way, bad decisions were made!

Anonymous said...

Take money...pay it back. That's a loan.
Take money...don't pay it back. That's welfare.

Don't know why anyone would assume their student loan doesn't have to be paid back just like any other commitment.

Anonymous said...

1:45, please go back to school to study the rules of punctuation.

Anonymous said...

It's so true 3:29 pm. They actually borrowed money that they don't feel they have to pay back!!! The sense of entitlement or idiot status is appalling. WTF!

Anonymous said...

Gee, I don't know. Have any of the welfare tit suckers been sent to prison for the billions they took??
There's plenty to be pissed off at the government about but this is no ones fault but the ingrates that took the money then decided not to pay it back.

Unknown said...

its time the college grads SHOULD be paying their student loans back they werent crying the blues when they got the loans if they cant pay their loans back and cant find a job ,introduce them to forced manual labor bet they would find the money or a job then

Anonymous said...

Stay on topic.

Alex said...

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