Amended Previous Year's Return - IRS owes me money but amended returns wants me to pay more money to IRS

[LisaLove22]

Hello! I think I know the answer to this but I want to make sure I'm thinking this through correctly.

I used TurboTax to file last year's return. At the time, I had been overpaid Paid Family Leave by the state. I knew I was going to have to pay the difference back but it took the department 18 months to process the over payment and let me know the official amount I needed to pay back before I was able to do that. So for 2023, I just went forward with my taxes that showed the higher amount of Paid Family Leave (before my pay back).

I paid back the extra Paid Family Leave a couple of weeks ago and went back to TurboTax 2023 to complete an amended 2023 return. I entered the correct amount of Paid Family Leave that I actually received and it shows that I still owe the federal government money but less money than I actually paid in 2023. In order to file this amended 2023 return, do I need to pay this adjusted lower amount even though technically the IRS should be giving me money back (since I overpaid last year)? Do I need to do this in order to get the refunded difference between what I actually paid the federal government last year and what I should have paid them? Looking at other questions that were similar to mine, this seems like what I need to do.  I am feeling nervous about doing this though, after my experience with working with the state to try to pay them back money. It took 18 months and lots of time on the phone, and I was trying to return money!

TurboTax 2023 did give me a place to explain why I was completing the amended return, so hopefully that will be sufficient for this to go through.

Thanks for your help!

[JohnB5677 · Accepted solution]

On the amended return, on the original screen, did it show -0- or did it show the original tax due.

It should have shown -0-.  

You would then be entitled to a refund.

You may get a question about paying off the 2023 taxes.  

If you do, answer appropriately.

If not

To enter in TurboTax Desktop

1. Select Deductions & Credits
2. Estimates and other taxes Paid
3. Other  Income taxes
4. Payment with extension
5. Payment with 2023 extension

This will clear the previous taxes paid.