Refunds

[Ingrid52568]

On my 2019 taxes, I got a federal refund, owed state. Checked TurboTax box to have state tax taken out of my federal.  The whole federal refund was auto deposited into my bank account.  The state tax was never taken out of my bank account.  This was back in April/May.  Never heard anything from anyone about what I owed, and frankly, forgot about it.   I just received a state tax REFUND check - with 96 cents interest - for the amount I owed.  No explanation.  All IRS sites say that if they amend the return, either way, they send a letter.  A letter may come next week, of course. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas what's going on?

[mesquitebean]

It is not possible to pay state taxes due out of a Federal refund.   There's no way to guarantee that the IRS would even approve a Federal refund.   The only thing that can be paid out of a Federal refund is the TurboTax product fees.    State taxes have to be paid by whatever method your state allows.

If the state changed your return, you should receive a letter at some point from the state (not the IRS).    Or you can phone your state tax agency and ask them what is going on as far as your state return.

[DoninGA]

You must have misunderstood something when shown that you have taxes owed in the File section of the program.

State taxes owed can NEVER be paid from the federal tax refund.  If you have not paid the state taxes owed then the state is correct in billing you for the payment.

How you chose to pay the state taxes owed will be on the State Filing Instructions page included with your tax return.

Sign onto your TurboTax online account - https://myturbotax.intuit.com/

Scroll down and click on Add a State.  This will take you back to the 2019 online tax return.

Click on Tax Tools on the left side of the online program screen. Then click on Print Center. Then click on Print, save or preview this year's return.

[mesquitebean]

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@ DoninGA wrote:

You must have misunderstood something when shown that you have taxes owed in the File section of the program.

State taxes owed can NEVER be paid from the federal tax refund.  If you have not paid the state taxes owed then the state is correct in billing you for the payment.

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User said the state sent him/her a refund check and some interest, not a bill; i.e., the state sent him/her the amount he owed in state tax.  So that's confusing.

[Critter-3]

If you got a refund instead of the debit of a balance due then review your return carefully ... it may be you made a data entry error, or forgot to add an estimated payment or maybe you applied last year's refund to this year's `return.   Until the notice arrives you may not resolve this mystery.