Student loans & taxes

[Peter1142]

It appears I will have no choice but to file taxes separately from my wife, so that she can do income based repayment. However, I filed taxes jointly with her last year, and her student loans are due in February and March, and with my income they will want full payment. I cannot possibly afford to cover her full payment student loans.

If we file taxes separately in February, when will be able to use them to reapply for income based repayment? If it is much later in the year we are in trouble.

Has anyone ever filed for forebearance because they have income below the poverty line and can't find a full time job, but want to file taxes jointly with their spouse who has a normal income? Is that ever successful?

[SCF]

You aren't the only one who has had this question, so I would reccomend doing some Google searching here and on other forums/resources.  It's a pretty mathy question that is very dependent on your specific situation to determine whether it is better financially to file taxes jointly and make full payments or file seperately, take the various tax hits, and receive the benefits of a lower IBR on the spouse's loans.

I do believe that IBR uses your most recently filed taxes, so if you do file seperately as soon as you can, you should be able to apply for the payment based only on your wife's income in February/March.  There is an economic hardship deferment, as well as forbearance out there that she may be able to take advantage of.  I would reccomend going to her lender's website and using the application forms to see what she might qualify for and then applying for what seems to fit best.

[Luscher]

You could always do forbearance if you are eligible. And continue to pay what you can while still on forbearance.

[Anonymous]

I was able to have them caculate my IBR based off of paystubs NOT my taxes.  Originally, I completed paperwork using my taxes and the payment still came back higher than I could afford due to written off debt being included as income.  When I explained the reason why using my tax information screwed me, I was then told "oh, then we can just redo them based on paystubs"  I believe they required the last 2-3 paystubs and BAM payment was cut down to a third of what it had been.

SInce then I have now started a new job a few months agp with a 20k pay increase I will use taxes this year when they want to recalculate so I'm I will see a bump i am sure but not as much if I were to use current paystubs.