You will get a 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 refund. It might be a couple of months before you get it. For more information see the following IRS announcements and FAQ.
IRS to recalculate taxes on unemployment benefits; refunds to start in May
IRS begins correcting tax returns for unemployment compensation income exclusion
IRS continues unemployment compensation adjustments, prepares another 1.5 million refunds
2020 Unemployment Compensation Exclusion FAQs
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.
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-topics/help/how-do-i-get-the-new-unemployment-benefits-if-i-ve...
Please read this news from the IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-to-recalculate-taxes-on-unemployment-benefits-refunds-to-start-in-m...
