Why did I receive less from the IRS than TurboTax came up with for a refund?

[SweetieJean]

One possibility why your deposited amount is less than your expected refund is that you used the Refund Processing Service to pay your TurboTax Online fees. If so, your TurboTax fee plus the additional processing fee of $34.99 ($39.99 in California) plus sales tax is deducted from your Federal tax refund.

Another possibility is that your refund was reduced by the government, either to correct an error or through a refund offset. The IRS Where's My Refund tool will let you know if your refund have been offset.

You'll get an explanatory letter from the government if your refund differs from what was on your filed return.

Federal and state refunds are sent separately, each on its own timetable, so you may have gotten one but not the other.

[null242]

Where's My Refund tool did not show a reduced amount, and I selected the FREE filing at least 3 times, so I hope TurboTax didn't slip that in somewhere.  If they did, I would like a refund.  I guess if the IRS is going to send a letter, I won't see that for a couple of months.