2019 audit for social security

• If your combined income is under $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (joint filing), there is no tax on your Social Security benefits.
• For combined income between $25,000 and $34,000 (single) or $32,000 and $44,000 (joint filing), up to 50% of benefits can be taxed.
• With combined income above $34,000 (single) or above $44,000 (joint filing), up to 85% of benefits can be taxed.

Did you file a joint return for 2019?  When you entered your W-2's, did you enter the income amounts under each spouse's name?   If you got mixed up and entered it all under only one of your names that can cause problems.

Check to see how much you entered from box 4 of your W-2's.   Did you enter more than $8239.80 for one of the spouses?

Look at line 11 of your Schedule 3.  If there is an amount there, then you claimed to have paid excess Social Security.  That could happen when you enter all of the W-2 income under only one name on a joint return.  The IRS refunds the “excess” Social Security.  Now they have matched your W-2’s to the return and they want that money back.

Check the worksheets from your tax return to see if you entered all of the W-2 income for both spouses under only one of the names on a joint return.  That is the most common reason for this problem.  Unfortunately, it is user error.  As you prepare your return, several screens alert you to it. 

And if you did in fact make the mistake of entering all of the income for your W-2’s under only one spouse’s name, you may have made that same mistake on the next year’s tax return if you transferred all your data over from the past year to the next.  Check to see—before you get another IRS letter.

On your Form 1040  if you had excess Social Security it flows from Schedule 3 to line 31 of your Form 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/credits-and-deductions/help/can-i-get-a-refund-for-excess-social-security-tax-withheld/00/25710