Married Filing Separately Option for Income Based Repayment?
My wife and I both have student loans. I make a good salary so making my student loan payment is not terribly difficult. However, my wife has a private and a federal student loan. The payment on the private loan is $205 per month. The payment on the federal student loan is $780 per month. With a take home pay of $1,100 per month (christian school teacher) there is no way she can pay a combined $985 per month.
Her loans are both serviced by SallieMae. When I talk to them about coming up with a payment that she can manage, they talk about income based repayment plan (IBR). I said that sounds good until they tell me that they go by the income on our federal tax return.
So this leads me to my question. I realize that preparing our tax returns as "Married Filing Separately" is going to make a big difference in any tax return we may have gotten in the past, but will it shield me from SallieMae wanting to use my income to pay back her student loans? Or can they still use my income as basis for repayment?
Her loans are both serviced by SallieMae. When I talk to them about coming up with a payment that she can manage, they talk about income based repayment plan (IBR). I said that sounds good until they tell me that they go by the income on our federal tax return.
So this leads me to my question. I realize that preparing our tax returns as "Married Filing Separately" is going to make a big difference in any tax return we may have gotten in the past, but will it shield me from SallieMae wanting to use my income to pay back her student loans? Or can they still use my income as basis for repayment?
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