In general, Massachusetts law allows the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) to apply taxpayers' overpayments to any outstanding undisputed tax liabilities they may have.
Joint filers may have their entire refund intercepted. If the overpayment being applied to an undisputed liability resulted from the filing of a joint Massachusetts Income Tax return and only one joint filer is legally responsible for the debt, the non-debtor spouse may request that DOR refund a portion of the overpayment by filing Form M-8379. Form M-8379 may be filed only if the non?debtor spouse would be due a refund based on separate filing status, and the income, withholding and estimated tax payments relate to the non-debtor spouse.
Please note that a $10 fee may be deducted from a taxpayer's state tax refund to cover DOR's costs of processing this state tax refund intercept. The fee will be taken out of the refund prior to the intercept.
For further information, taxpayers should call the MA Customer Service Bureau at (617) 887-MDOR or toll-free within Massachusetts at 1 (800) 392-6089.
Administrative Procedure 606 Refund Intercepts