Amend return due to PTC forgiveness?

[singingmom]

I need to amend our 2020 return due to the recent changes regarding premium tax credit forgiveness. Our return was already accepted, and our payment is due to come out of our account on May 17. But now with the changes, we owe less (yay!) but I can't figure out what to do about it! 

I'm using TT 2020 desktop download version. My TT program is now showing the updated/corrected amounts, but they're obviously not the same as what I filed.  When I open the program and click on "amend a filed return," it asks (on step by step view) where the changes need to be made, and I can't figure out where to go from there.

I guess the problem is that the corrections are already made within my program, but I don't know how to share them with the IRS... hope that makes sense.  Please help and thanks!

[ToddL99 · Accepted solution]

You do not need to amend your tax return claim forgiveness for an excess premium tax credit - the IRS will make the adjustment automatically. If payment has already been made (or scheduled), you will get reimbursed.

See IRS suspends requirement to repay excess advance payments of the 2020 Premium Tax Credit

Taxpayers who have already filed their 2020 tax return and who have excess APTC for 2020 do not need to file an amended tax return or contact the IRS. The IRS will reduce the excess APTC repayment amount to zero with no further action needed by the taxpayer. The IRS will reimburse people who have already repaid any excess advance Premium Tax Credit on their 2020 tax return. Taxpayers who received a letter about a missing Form 8962 should disregard the letter if they have excess APTC for 2020. The IRS will process tax returns without Form 8962 for tax year 2020 by reducing the excess advance premium tax credit repayment amount to zero. 

Again, IRS is taking steps to reimburse people who filed Form 8962, reported, and paid an excess advance Premium Tax Credit repayment amount with their 2020 tax return before the recent legislative changes were made. Taxpayers in this situation should not file an amended return solely to get a refund of this amount. The IRS will provide more details on IRS.gov. There is no need to file an amended tax return or contact the IRS. 

I

[singingmom]

That's a much easier fix than I had expected, lol... I guess I was making it more complicated than it needed to be. Thank you so much!

[pick4taxes]

I filed my taxes with TurboTax prior to the IRS announcement on APTC forgiveness. This was back in March. I have read the IRS announcements that no action is required on my part; that the IRS will remove the repayment, recalculate my taxes and refund the difference, if applicable. TurboTax has updated my electronic return on my computer to show that I indeed should be getting a meaningful refund; hopefully the same conclusion the IRS reaches. But, I have not heard a peep from the IRS. Should I have heard something by now? Is there a plana B that makes sense? Or does this ultimately get rectified in my 2021 (filed in 2022) return? Thank you.

[Critter-3]

The IRS has not recalculated all of the 2020 returns yet so do not mail in an amended return just yet ... and it will not be corrected on the 2021 return either.  You can try calling to see what you can find out ... 

Call the IRS: 1-800-829-1040 hours 7 AM - 7 PM local time Monday-Friday
When calling the IRS do NOT choose the first option re: "Refund", or it will send you to an automated phone line.
So after first choosing your language, then do NOT choose Option 1 (refund info). Choose option 2 for "personal income tax" instead.
Then press 1 for "form, tax history, or payment".
Then press 3 "for all other questions."
Then press 2 "for all other questions."
- When it asks you to enter your SSN or EIN to access your account information, don't enter anything.
- After it asks twice, you will get another menu.

Press 2 for personal or individual tax questions.
Then press 4 for all other inquiries
It should then transfer you to an agent.

[retiarius]

Kudos to the author of the response on how to get

through the IRS phone tree.   That said, they couldn't

speak to this issue for me because their intake screens didn't

show me as a "third party designee" on my adult child's tax return.

However, as the tax preparer, I did check that box using

Turbotax (together with a 5-digit PIN), so a secondary

question is whether TT passes thru this info to IRS correctly.

The main question remains, has *anyone* received an APTC

refund yet due to the Congressional/IRS/Turbotax snafu?

Today's date is February 1, 2022.  If folks are not receiving this refund

yet after almost 10-11 months, then patience may be a virtue.

Otherwise, what are the disadvantages of just going ahead

and filing an amended return?

[RobertB4444]

Many people have already received an APTC refund.  Many have not. 

Filing an amended return will only further delay your return processing in a system that is already backed up and overloaded.  

[retiarius]

Acknowledging the IRS backlog, created by Congressional underfunding (you can guess the obstructionist "political party" here, since refund processing is more important to the poorer.)

It is now June 22, 2022 as I write, long after Turbotax "checkbox authority" over my son's return has expired.   Yet filing Form 8821 by paper will create an even more onerous backlog.   You'd think at least an online APTC refund status check could be automated...

[Critter-3]

Sorry but the IRS budgets have been reduced every year for more than a decade and the hiring freezes have been exasperated by the covid situation so anything that requires  human interaction (like the PTC correction) is taking way too long to process and there is no way to speed it up especially for something that is a "one of" never to be repeated.  If you want to complain do it to your congress person as they are the ones hobbling the IRS's ability to service the taxpayers timely. 

IRS website for tax return status information - https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-operations-during-covid-19-mission-critical-functions-continue

As of June 10, 2022, we had 11 million unprocessed individual returns which include returns received before 2022, and new tax year 2021 returns. Of these, 1.9 million returns require error correction or other special handling, and 9.1 million are paper returns waiting to be reviewed and processed. This work does not typically require us to correspond with taxpayers but does require special handling by an IRS employee so, in these instances, it is taking the IRS more than 21 days to issue any related refund and in some cases this work could take 90 to 120 days. If a correction is made to any Recovery Rebate Credit, Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit claimed on the return, the IRS will send taxpayers an explanation. Taxpayers are encouraged to continue to check Tax Season Refund Frequently Asked Questions.

[retiarius]

I wrote a TT community message about this on January 31, 2022 and also in July.

It is now almost a year later, in December 2022, and almost 2 years (!) for early

filers of 2020 returns.  A level-15 TT expert posited then

that IRS would process these types of things (this is not processing of paper,

just an electronic filing!) within 90-120 days or so.

Still no correspondence from IRS -- time to file an amended return yet?

If IRS says nothing, there will be a feedback loop of folks filing amended returns

(via error-prone paper, since e-filing of amended returns is not possible as far

as I can discern) then having the backlog increase even further.

Yikes -- maybe their cognizant IT folks have all quit in frustration?

[pick4taxes]

I have been following this thread (and similar ones) for a long while. There was one message a while back that itemized the steps to short circuit the normal automated IRS phone system algorithm to actually get to a human (a specific, not so obvious sequence as I recall). I tried and after literally 20 unique call-in days, it worked. I reached someone that looked over my return in real time and agreed it should have already been processed. She then forwarded me to someone in another department who was surprised the original call handler didn't just go ahead and order the change to my return (zeroing out the Excess APTC repayment, line 2, schedule 2, form 1040). This second person was sympathetic to how many times I had tried to call previously and how long I had been on the phone that very day. She basically said, "enough is enough" and committed to fixing my return right then and there. 30 minutes later, the refund was ordered from the IRS with interest. This was in late August 2022; check rec'd in mid September 2022.

Two things I learned. (1) Keep trying and (2), as she emphatically told me, filing an amended return will only screw things up further, irrespective of how long it has already taken. She could not (or would not) comment as to why this was so messed up, but she was very well versed in the immediate steps to take to resolve my issues. So, the fixers do exist....