You may receive a reduced refund for several different reasons.
1. You chose to have your TurboTax fees deducted from your refund. If this is the case the amount you receive will be the amount shown as your refund on your return less your TurboTax fees and less the refund processing fee charged by the 3rd party bank for processing your refund.
2. You were expecting the total amount of your federal and state refunds. You usually do not receive your federal and your state refunds at the same time. Since federal refunds are processed by the IRS and your state refund is processed by the state the two are unrelated. The IRS and the states generally do not coordinate their processing or deposit schedules.
3. Your refund was subject to an “offset”. This is usually when you owe back taxes or child support but can also include amounts owed on state income tax, unemployment compensation debts, spousal support, or other federal nontax debts, such as student loans. If your refund is reduced for a federal tax debt you will receive a notice from the IRS. If your refund is reduced for another type of debt you will receive a notice from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). You can also call the BFS at 800-304-3107.
4. The IRS withheld a part of your refund while they do further verification for a particular credit like the Earned Income Credit. In this instance the IRS will send you a partial refund now and will release the remainder of your credit once they have completed the verification process.
5. The IRS changed something on your tax return. If this happens the IRS will send you a letter explaining the changes, usually within 14 days.
If the IRS withheld a portion of your refund or made changes to your tax return and you do not receive a letter within 14 days you can call the IRS at 800-829-1040. If you call this number before the 14 days are up, though, they will not have any information to give you. See #9 of the IRS’s Ten Things to Know About Tax Refunds.
Has this happened before? Where the IRS pays part of the return now, and waits to pay you the other portion? I am in a situation like this now.
Please see the details listed by our Champ Critter above that explains that the IRS can withhold part of your refund until further review is completed. You will receive a letter in the mail.
I did not recieve my full refund as of yet. File Feburary 28th 2020
If your deposit was lower than the amount you were expecting, please click here to learn more.
I received a reduced refund. Status says I will receive a letter within 30 days requesting further information. I filed mid February and never received the letter. On the phone I just get the automated services. FWIW the amount reduced was the exact amount of my earned income credit. I rechecked to make sure I entered the information from form 1095-A correctly. Apparently one can't do anything without the letter and I can't reach anyone to resend the letter or just resolve the issue over the phone. Suggestions?
We received a letter from the IRS about an error on our tax return regarding the Recovery Rebate Credit which we claimed as income. The letter indicated that we would receive a refund. The refund has been deposited in our account minus the Turbo Tax fees. However, the refund we should have received originally still has not been deposited in our account. Any ideas on why we have not received the actual refund?
According to this IRS update as of April 30th:
The IRS is now opening mail within normal timeframes. The IRS has also made significant progress in processing prior year returns. As of April 23, 2021, we had 1.3 million individual tax returns received prior to 2021 in the processing pipeline. Including current year returns, as of April 23, 2021, we had 16.9 million unprocessed individual returns in the pipeline. Unprocessed returns include those requiring correction to the Recovery Rebate Credit amount or validation of 2019 income used to figure the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). This work does not 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. If, as a result, a correction is made to any RRC, EITC or ACTC claimed on the return, the IRS will send taxpayers an explanation. Taxpayers are encouraged to continue to check Where’s My Refund? for their personalized refund status and can review Tax Season Refund Frequently Asked Questions.
How long you may have to wait: The IRS understands the importance of timely processing of tax returns and refund issuance. We are processing returns received over the summer and fall in 2020 due to the extended July 15, 2020 tax filing due date. While the majority of 2019 refund returns have been processed, in some cases, we are processing tax returns that were mailed with a payment even though payment associated with these returns have been processed by the IRS. However, we are rerouting tax returns and taxpayer correspondence from locations that are behind to locations where more staff is available, and we are taking other actions to minimize any delays. Tax returns are opened in the order received. As the return is processed, it may be delayed because it has a mistake including errors concerning the Recovery Rebate Credit, is missing information, or there is suspected identity theft or fraud. If we can fix it without contacting you, we will. If we need more information or need you to verify that it was you who sent the tax return, we will write you a letter. The resolution of these issues depends on how quickly and accurately you respond, and the ability of IRS staff trained and working under social distancing requirements to complete the processing of your return.
What you should do: If you filed electronically and received an acknowledgement, you do not need to take any further action other than promptly responding to any requests for information. If you filed on paper, check Where’s my refund? If it tells you we have received your return or are processing or reviewing it, we are processing your return, but it may be under review. We’re working hard to get through the backlog. Please don’t file a second tax return or contact the IRS about the status of your return.
I filed my taxes in March of 2020. When I filed my taxes TurboTax calculator indicated what my refund was for both Federal and State. When I went back into TurboTax in July to get the amount I was due, TurboTax updated my refund amount to almost double what it was originally. I have since received my refund of the smaller amount but wondered why the Federal refund amount increased and the State refund did not change. What do I do to recover the additional amount? How do I know the revised refund amount is correct? I did not change anything on the actual tax return. Suggestions? Someone to call? Thank you
You mean your 2020 return you filed in March 2021? Did you have any unemployment?
If you have filed early before the exclusion, the IRS will recalculate your return for the new 10,200 unemployment exemption for you. There is no need for taxpayers to file an amended return unless the calculations make the taxpayer newly eligible for additional federal credits and deductions not already included on the original tax return.
The IRS is recalculating refunds for people whose AGI is $150K or below and who filed before the tax law that changed the amount of unemployment that is taxable on a federal return became effective.
The IRS began to send out the additional refund checks for tax withheld from unemployment in May. The refunds are being sent out in batches—starting with the simplest returns first. If you are eligible for the extra refund for federal tax that was withheld from your unemployment the IRS will be sending you an additional refund sometime during the next several months. TurboTax cannot track or predict when it will be sent. The IRS has not provided a way for you to track it, so all you can do is wait for the refund to arrive.
Please read this very recent news from the IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/2020-unemployment-compensation-exclusion-faqs
Same here I wonder where is my 2,600 missing that’s so much money gone
There could have been an offset or correction made to your refund by the IRS. For more information on this, please see the Help Article here for further assistance. If you feel like none of the scenarios mentioned fits, please reach out to the IRS.
IRS: 800-829-1040
Hours: 7 AM - 7 PM, local time
Monday-Friday
i don’t have any offsets or debts for the irs but i only received $800 of the $2000 i was supposed to???
If your refund amount is lower than what is showing in TurboTax, you should get a letter from the government explaining why you didn't get the entire refund. You can also get this information by looking up your refund at the IRS Where’s My Refund? page.
For more information
Why is my direct-deposited refund or check lower than the amount in TurboTax?
I just received a deposit of $750 this morning. But my tax return according to the IRS website is suppose to be over $7,700.00. Other $7,000 dollars are missing.
Please see this Help Article for information as to why your refund was less than expected.
@LoganMeck 7,000 could be the 3rd stimulus for 5 people. Did you have 7,000 on 1040 line 30? Check your bank records, you probably already got the 7,000 during the year. Did you get any IRS letters 6475 or 6419? You should get letters for each spouse saying what the IRS sent you (1/2 for each spouse).
My partner and myself only revived partial payments of our federal. We are both missing the same $1400. We don’t owe anything or have any reason they would take that as payment for anything. Could they be checking our credit? also any idea on how long that takes?
@Rgrosh Did you get the 3rd Stimulus payment during the year? It was 1400 per person. Check your bank statements. And you should have gotten IRS letter 6475 saying what they sent you. Did you have 1400 on 1040 line 30? You tried to get credit for it again, but the IRS already sent it to you so they took it off your return. There is no more refund to get and nothing to fix.
No neither of us received the 1400 stimulus.