Amended amount of tax due

[Pinevalleyite]

I received a letter from the IRS that I missed a form when doing my 2017 taxes. I paid what they said I owed immediately to stop the interest accruing and then obtained the form and did an "amended return" in the Turbotax system to see if I got the same numbers. Now I just need clarification for this example: Say IRS says you owe $6,000 based on this omission and you do the Turbotax check and it says you owe $4000 is that because I had gotten a refund of $2,000. In other words, does Turbotax show only the difference, not what the overall tax bill would have been?

[Texas Roger]

If the refund from the original return is entered on the amended return form 1040X on line 18, then the amount owed on line 20 is the difference. If the corrected return shows you would have owed $6000 and your got a $2000 refund from the original return, then you still owe $4000. 

[Pinevalleyite]

Thanks for that. I looked and it appears that what IRS did was apply standard deduction when they showed their abbreviated changes but I had itemized deductions that year as they were over the minimum. I think I will send the amended in even though I already paid their bill since I hadn't wanted interest to accrue.