Student Loan Law: 9.3.7 Preventing Tax Offsets
The only surefire method of avoiding a tax refund intercept for a borrower currently in default is to lower federal income tax withholding from earnings and any estimated tax payments. The taxpayer may complete a new IRS Form W-4 (Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate) to accomplish this. Then, at the end of the year, the taxpayer is not owed a refund and there can be no interception.