Checked the status of my joint return and it said "Your refund has been reduced to pay a past due IRS tax obligation." I know I don't have any unpaid taxes. What do I do?

[jillverkaik]

I'm married, and filed my return jointly. I checked the status of my federal return, and was expecting a refund of $7500 because of my husband's unpredicted low self-employment income. We've filed jointly last year too, through turbotax also. I checked the status of our return and it said "Your refund has been reduced to pay a past due IRS tax obligation" and now it looks like were only getting $6200 back. I know I don't have any unpaid taxes. How do I find out what went wrong, and why didn't this 'unpaid tax' show up when I got my return last year or when I filed this year?

[SweetieJean]

Have you asked your spouse?

[jillverkaik]

Yes, we can't figure it out. Why wouldn't this have come up last year or right when I filed this year?

[SweetieJean]

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

[jillverkaik]

We don't have any child support, we've paid all our state taxes as required when we've filed with turbotax, and we have no unemployment debts as we've never collected unemployment.

[VolvoGirl]

If it says for a IRS tax then it sounds like for a federal tax due for a prior year.  Not a debt you owe.  Have you paid all your tax returns?  Maybe they adjusted your income on a prior year so you owe more tax.   You should have got letters about it before.  Guess you will have to call 1-800-829-1040