Offset

[Pepey02]

Hello,

i owe a state college money. It has been sent to the Ohio attorney general. I checked my state tax refund status and it says the money is being offset to pay this debt. Now I know it is not enough to cover the debt in full. So does this mean that they will take my federal tax refund too? Are universities allowed to do that? This is money owed directly to the college not a student loan. 

[xmasbaby0]

TurboTax never knows about offsets to your federal or state refunds.   You can check to see if there is an offset order in place for your federal refund.

Reduced Refund      https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc203

 NOTE: You can contact the IRS Treasury Offset Program Call Center at 1-800-304-3107 to ask if they have an offset for you on file. TurboTax would not have that information.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-payments/who-can-garnish-an-income-tax-refund/L7cPPzDyc

[DavidD66]

Yes, they are allowed to do that, and yes they will also offset your federal refund. The IRS or the Department of Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS), which issues IRS tax refunds, can offset or reduce your federal tax refund or withhold the entire amount to satisfy the debt.

If you owe federal or state income taxes your refund will be offset to pay those taxes. If you had other debt such as child support or student loan debt that was submitted for offset, FMS will take as much of your refund as is needed to pay off the debt, and send it to the agency authorized to collect the debt. Any portion of your refund remaining after an offset will be refunded to you.

[Pepey02]

It is not a federal student loan tho. It is just a debt owed straight to the university. A university is not listed as one of the things that can be paid for offset when regarding a federal return correct? 

[Vanessa A]

Correct.  If it is not a student loan and it is just a loan from the school, it would not be subject to offset.  They can sue you, attach assets and garnish wages, but it is not something that can collect from your federal income taxes.