No. Federal income taxes and State income taxes are totally separate. State income taxes owed cannot be paid with a federal tax refund. And Federal income taxes owed cannot be paid by a State income tax refund.
And Federal income taxes owed cannot be paid by a State income tax refund.
This is total bad information. I owed Federal Taxes and the IRS took my state return. This answer is a false hope.
This is incorrect info. The IRS took my state refund this year. This is what it shows on NYS refund status website "Our records indicate your refund has been applied to one or more outstanding liabilities. If both your federal and state refunds were offset, it may take up to 60 days to receive a refund of any overpayment.Our records indicate your refund has been applied to an outstanding Internal Revenue Service liability. For further information on this liability call the IRS at ....." So you are giving incorrect info. You might want to recheck where you are getting this info from. This is directly from the IRS's website <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/federal-and-state-levy-programs">https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/federal-and-state-levy-programs</a>
This is incorrect info. The IRS took my state refund this year. This is what it shows on NYS refund status website "Our records indicate your refund has been applied to one or more outstanding liabilities. If both your federal and state refunds were offset, it may take up to 60 days to receive a refund of any overpayment.Our records indicate your refund has been applied to an outstanding Internal Revenue Service liability. For further information on this liability call the IRS at ....." So you are giving incorrect info. You might want to recheck where you are getting this info from. This is directly from the IRS's website <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/federal-and-state-levy-programs">https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/federal-and-state-levy-programs</a>
I hear you talking with confidence and authority, but you are wrong. When you owe federal taxes and are getting a state refund, and both returns are filed at the same time, the feds WILL apply your state refund to your federal bill.
FALSE! I owed the IRS, They took money from my FED refund to cover it AND the CA STATE sent them the money too out on my state refund. Now I am fighting to get the difference back! I paid the bill twice!
Yes, I thought the same thing, but after calling the IRS they can and did take my state refund as well.
Totally false. I owed 2300 to federal for an audit 2 years ago. My MA state refund was just taken to offset federal debt. They did it last year too and I’m audited again.
The IRS took the state I was owed from my federal. So that's a lie...it was just recently taken from my account. I paid state 2 times. Hoe can I get my money back
The information is not incorrect, just not worded correctly. TurboTax cannot apply your refund to the other entity. The IRS, however, can offset for this amount.
@kagamihaven You are correct. It is worded badly. Also, TT shows you the net effect of Federal and state for the same tax year, and users sometimes misread those numbers.
This isn't correct. From our 2019 return the IRS applied a chunk to a state debt. The state of Ohio also applied a chunk of that refund to a federal debt. The problem is, both debts were satisfied with the 2019 filing, so neither should have occurred. Now I have to try to recoup from both agencies, and I'm sure it will take months.
Same here, except state and federal both took money for the other for a debt that was already satisfied. I'm livid. I hope things worked out for you.
Yes, the IRS can take your state refund (Under the State Refund Levy Program), and apply it to any past due debts.
Well I know my federal was garnished for the exact amount of child support I owed in arrears and then I got a letter from New Jersey State Treasury with the same amount garnished for the same exact thing so they both took the same amount amount for arrears so one of them owes me that money back because I'm paid up as far as child support now that they garnished it
Please contact your State Department of Revenue directly for an explanation.
How do I contact my state Department of Revenue? - Community
Well, let me just say tht not sure tht is true I found out last year I owe federal taxes (not sure why) they kept my federal and state last year... This year I filed both and have not received either one... Can you answer that for me? Please..
The Treasury Offset Program (TOP) is administered by the United States Department of Treasury’s Financial Management Service (FMS). It allows federal and state government agencies to collect outstanding debts owed to them by garnishing, or offsetting, your debt with your tax refund. Who Can Garnish an Income Tax Refund?
If the government or state made a correction to your tax return, resulting in a lower than anticipated refund, you'll get an official explanatory letter when this happens.
Please see the TurboTax FAQ below, for reasons your refund may have been less than expected: Why is my direct-deposited refund or check lower than the amount in TurboTax?
You can go to this link Topic No. 203 Reduced Refund there is a phone number you can call to see if there was a refund offset.
If this is putting you into financial hardship, please see this link:Taxpayer Advocate Service
it works both ways. The IRS can take a state refund and the state can take a federal refund.
The original answer is correct if the question was "can the federal refund pay the state balance due or the reverse on a filed return " which is a big no. Some folks think that a refund on one return will automatically pay the balance due of the other return for the same tax year and fail to pay the balance due then get notices that they did not pay and now owe penalties and interest. However once a return is filed then a state refund can be grabbed by the IRS to pay a prior year debt and vise versa.
The IRS can garnish certain state debts. These Turbo Tax articles will provide more information on offsets.
Who Can Garnish an Income Tax Refund?
Treasury Offset Program & Debt Management Services