My tax refund received does not match my expected refund

[bluedeb · Accepted solution]

No one here would know why your refund was not what you expected.  You will receive a letter from the IRS and/or State explaining the difference in your refund.

Why is my direct-deposited refund or check lower than the amount in TurboTax?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/refunds/help/why-is-my-direct-deposited-refund-or-check-lower-than...

[Roabh]

What an unusual answer and not very satisfactory. 

The difference between what TurboTax said my federal refund would be and what I got is $989 less.  So I can certainly wait for a letter from the IRS but why would there be such a difference between the two when TurboTax desktop software "checks" the return and the return was "accepted" by the IRS?  Our return was quite straight forward and uncomplicated.  

[Roabh]

Oh and to be very clear.  I ran updates on the software continuously before and after filing my return in case something was updated and there is still this large difference in refund between the TurbTax and what we received.   Thank you. 

[SweetieJean]

TT can only checks what you type in.  It has no way of knowing if you made a data entry error, or forgot to claim some income.  The IRS may also have reduced your refund for back taxes owed, child support, etc. Again, TT would not know that, as the IRS does not tell TT anything about it.

[Roabh]

I understand the concepts you raised and apologize for not addressing these more obscure issues from the start.  I checked for data entry errors and there are no back taxes owed or child support, again, a very simple submission.  I would not expect the IRS to to not tell TT anything about those kinds of the things.  That would be unrealistic and I was not suggesting this.

I will just have to do my taxes by hand and see if I can come up with the same result as TT.  Very disappointing.  Cheers, Roabh.

[NashayLO]

@Roabh Due to the amount of the difference and acknowledging that you don't have an offset, there is a good chance that the IRS may have made a correction to your tax return, resulting in a lower than anticipated refund. To find out for sure go to Get My IRS Transcripts. 

Please see this TurboTax FAQ, for more information, Why is my direct-deposited refund or check lower t...

[sjgibbs]

TurboTax said I would get $600 more in refund than I did and when I went back and rechecked, TT said everything was error free, but when I went through each section and it asked about the stimulus payments, without changing any numbers, my refund was suddenly $600 less. Seems like an error or a bug.

[macuser_22]

If you said that you already receive the $600 stimulus then of course it would be removed from your refund.  You do not get the same money twice - what did you expect?

[Roabh]

Thank you for the information.  Since my post I have learned that the IRS has it wrong is not accounting for all the taxes we paid in 2020.  So now we get the joy of arguing with the IRS.  

[Roabh]

I think macuser's response here is rude and unnecessary.   sjgibbs was talking about a possible glitch in the TT software not that they were expecting the money twice. If they made no changes to the software then the refund amount should not have changed.   Please be nicer.

[macuser_22]

Nothing rude - that is the way it works.    TurboTax figures what your total stimulus should be and adds it to your refund, then  it asks how much you already received.  when you enter that the refund goes down as expected.

[sjgibbs]

Update: Finally received the IRS letter explaining the reduced refund. The intent of my post was not to whine, as @macuser_22 seemed to imply, but to draw attention to a possible bug or error within TT.

Indeed, the IRS letter confirms that TT miscalculated:

"We believe there's a miscalculation on your 2020 Form 1040, which affects the following area of your return: Recovery Rebate Credit. We made changes to your return that correct this error. As a result, you are due a refund of $XXX.XX."

Again, TT made this error, not me. I answered correctly and never made any changes.