Is Request for Innocent Spouse Relief the same as Injured Spouse?

No, they’re not the same at all.

Injured Spouse is only to protect a spouse from losing their share of any refund on a joint return when the other spouse is subject to capture of their refund for tax or certain non-tax debts. For example if you owed back taxes, student loans or child support that was being recovered from your tax refunds, your spouse would file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, to protect her share of any refund due. She’d get her share and yours would be captured to offset the tax or child support debt.

Innocent Spouse is a totally separate issue. First off, you can’t file it on your wife’s behalf. She would have to file it herself after the filing deadline, when it becomes impossible for her to file a separate return. It’s only granted in such cases that the Innocent Spouse can prove that he or she had absolutely no knowledge of the other parties financial activities and could not reasonably be expected to have any knowledge of them.

If you have tax debts from a year that you filed a joint return, both you and your spouse are liable for the full amount due. The IRS will pursue collection actions from both of you until the debt is paid, without regard to who pays what portion. Even if you divorced in the interim and the decree required you to pay all of the back taxes, the IRS isn’t party to the divorce and would continue collection actions against both of you. Innocent Spouse MIGHT be an avenue for your spouse in that case if she can prove that she had no knowledge of your finances, despite prudent actions on her part.

If you owe back taxes from prior to your marriage, or for years that you filed separate returns, then Injured Spouse would be appropriate for your spouse to protect her share of any refunds due this year.

No, they are not the same thing. Form 8379 can be obtained at with the instructions and information.

Injured Spouse is a process where one spouse is requesting part of the refund they are entitled to not be offset to a federal debt of the other person.

Innocent Spouse is a program that allows one spouse to be removed from a tax debt

An example, if one spouse has a tax debt prior to marriage the person without the debt could not file a Innocent Spouse because they did not file a joint return with the other the year of the debt. But an Injured Spouse form could be filed to get part of the current year refund the new spouse is entitled to receive.