"I paid taxes on my unemployment benefits" is somewhat imprecise. You should get an additional federal income tax refund for the unemployment exclusion if all of the following are true.
- You reported unemployment benefits as income on your 2020 tax return, on Schedule 1 line 7.
- You did not get the unemployment exclusion on the 2020 tax return that you filed. The unemployment exclusion would appear as a negative amount on Schedule 1 line 8, with the abbreviation UCE on the dotted line to the left of the amount.
- Your tax on Form 1040 line 16 is not zero.
- Your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), not including unemployment, is less than $150,000. In other words, Form 1040 line 11 minus Schedule 1 line 7 is less than $150,000.
If all four of those conditions are true, The IRS will recalculate your tax return and send you the additional refund.
TurboTax Online was updated for the unemployment exclusion on March 21, 2021. If you filed your 2020 tax return with TurboTax Online after that date, the unemployment exclusion was included in your tax return if you were entitled to it. In that case, no adjustment of your tax return is needed.
