topic When or how will a person know they have an offset and their refund is being taken? in After you file

When or how will a person know they have an offset and their refund is being taken?

caron1981 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:43:32 GMT

I told my sister that since her husband has back child support that their entire refund would be taken...not just his part but hers as well ( Texas ). She asked so I tod her. I then pointed out to her the numerous articles stating the same information from the attorney generals website on the subject. She is convinced that they will only take 50% and not the entire thing. She said he was told that they would only take 50% of it since it was married filed jointly but I don't thin that is the case.

Saying all that I have her transcript pulled up right now and it updated to 846 refund issued for 2/24. When will they receive notification from the IRS on how much they are taking? It will either be a 151 or 203 code on WMR right ? Will it show on WMR when it updates to refund approved or will it show up after WMR updates to refund sent? I've never personally been through this so I don't really know what to tell her to look for only that they will send a letter in the mail but the letters from the IRS normally take a long time to come in the mail specially from the BFS service.

I might tell her to file an injured spouse form. They are getting back 14k due to unclaimed stimulus money and other over payments they made but I think the child support amount is around 18k or close to 19k... that's another story in itself.

Re: When or how will a person know they have an offset and their refund is being taken?

xmasbaby0 — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 16:04:48 GMT

TX is a community property state. But if your sister's spouse owes child support the IRS can seize their entire federal refund unless she files an injured spouse form or files married filing separately---both of which are trickier to do in a community property state.

TurboTax never knows about offsets to refunds and does not receive any information about them. The IRS sends a letter AFTER they seize the refund.

https://www.irs.gov/uac/tax-refund-offsets-pay-unpaid-debts

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/refunds/help/what-is-a-refund-offset/00/26301

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

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901162-married-filing-separately-in-community-property-states

INJURED SPOUSE

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1910698-how-do-i-file-form-8379-injured-spouse-allocation

Re: When or how will a person know they have an offset and their refund is being taken?

dmurrell0688 — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 16:12:02 GMT

That’s not always true. My sister had a date for the 25th and her bar didn’t move, so she called and they said she had an offset and it’ll take 3-6 weeks for her to get the remaining funds from her tax refund.