Federal Tax refund

3 replies
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I waited a long time for my refund which you said was correct at $3,976. A few days ago I received an e-mail that said my refund was coming. It turns out it was for only $377. With alist of problems. What happened?

Bsch4477

Level 15

Generally you will get a letter from the IRS to explain any adjustment.

xmasbaby0

Level 15

TurboTax's calculations are based on the data entered by the user. The calculations are correct. But......TurboTax never knows if you have entered your income incorrectly or left anything out, etc. And lots of people gave incorrect answers to the recovery rebate credit questions, resulting in reduced refunds.

Did you enter ALL of the stimulus money that you had already received correctly in the recovery rebate credit section when you prepared your 2020 return? The IRS cross checks and if you did not enter all of the money you received, they recalculate your refund.

MY REFUND WAS LESS THAN I EXPECTED

There can be a number of reasons why your refund was less than the amount you expected. First of all, look carefully at your actual tax returns. There is sometimes confusion about the amount of refund to expect when users misinterpret the “summary” they saw in TurboTax. The amount of your refund is on your tax return. Federal refund is on line 34 on Form 1040 State tax forms are all different so we cannot tell you what line to look at on your state form. BUT it is important to actually LOOK at your tax return forms yourself and see the amounts of your tax refunds and/or tax due. A lot of confusion would be avoided by doing that.

TurboTax does not receive feedback from the IRS regarding money that was offset from your refund. If you owed back taxes, child support, student loan debt, etc. you will receive a letter of explanation from the IRS in several weeks. The WMR site will contain a message regarding your offset. It is also possible that the IRS caught a mistake you made and reduced your refund.

A possible reason for the reduction could be that the recovery rebate credit was completed incorrectly and you may have entered the amount of stimulus already received wrong, which could have reduced the refund you thought you were seeing.

It is also possible that your state reduced your refund for debts owed in your state—if the state reduced your state refund you will receive a letter from the state.

https://www.irs.gov/uac/tax-refund-offsets-pay-unpaid-debts

IRS Treasury Offset Program Call Center at 1-800-304-3107

Be aware also that your Federal refund and state refund do NOT come together. Federal and state tax returns are processed by two completely separate entities. There is no rule as to which one will come first,

Did you choose to have TT fees deducted from your Federal refund? (Remember that if you did that, you also agreed to an extra refund processing fee of $39.99)

How can I see my TurboTax fees?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2565973-how-do-i-review-my-fees-in-turbotax-online

https://www.irs.gov/uac/tax-refund-offsets-pay-unpaid-debts

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/refunds/help/what-is-a-refund-offset/00/26301

Reduced Refund https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc203

NOTE: You can contact the IRS Treasury Offset Program Call Center at 1-800-304-3107 to ask if they have an offset for you on file. TurboTax would not have that information.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-payments/who-can-garnish-an-income-tax-refund/L7cPPzDyc

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

Critter-3

Level 15

While you wait for the letter from the IRS get the amount actually sent from the IRS here :

https://www.irs.gov/refunds Did they send the entire refund ? Did they keep some for a debt ?

If there is no debt indicator then subtract the TT & Bank fees to get the amount sent to you. If that is a match then look at the actual return ... do you see that amount anywhere on your return ?

To access your current year online tax returns sign onto the TurboTax website with the User ID you used to create the account - https://myturbotax.intuit.com/

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and on the section Your tax returns & documents click on Show. Click on the Year and Click on Download/print return (PDF)

Or –

When you sign onto your online account and land on the Tax Home web page, scroll down and click on Add a state.

This will take you back to the 2020 online tax return.

Click on Tax Tools on the left side of the online program screen. Then click on Print Center. Then click on Print, save or preview this year's return. Choose the option Include government and TurboTax worksheets