Form 8857 (Request for Innocent Spouse Relief)

Full Definition

Form 8857 is titled "Request for Innocent Spouse Relief." The IRS states taxpayers file it "to request relief from tax liability, plus related penalties and interest, when they believe only their spouse or former spouse should be held responsible for all or part of the tax" — the procedural counterpart to the innocent-spouse-relief rules themselves.

The deadline is form-specific and easy to miss, because it does not track the return's own deadlines: "You must generally file Form 8857 no later than 2 years after the first IRS attempt to collect the tax from you." The instructions list what can start that clock — an IRS refund offset applied against a joint-return debt, the IRS filing a claim in a court or bankruptcy proceeding, a lawsuit by the United States to collect, or a section 6330 notice (a CDP notice, usually issued by Letter 11 or Letter 1058). Equitable relief runs on a different clock tied to how much time the IRS has left to collect or to refund and credit deadlines, not this 2-year rule.

One condition has no exception: "By law, the IRS must contact your spouse or former spouse... There are no exceptions, even for victims of spousal abuse or domestic violence." The IRS states it will inform that person a request was filed and let them participate, though it will not disclose your current address, phone number, employer, income, or assets to them.

The instructions distinguish this from the other spouse-relief form directly: file Form 8379 instead of this one if the debt at issue is a past-due obligation that belongs entirely to your spouse and you are only trying to get your own share of a refund back.

Sources

• About Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-24
• Instructions for Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief (Rev. June 2021) — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-24

Last reviewed 2026-08-24 by Tax Resolution Clarity editorial.