I would love to know why this is happening. The fact the refund is so short is terrible and cruel.
Did you enter ALL of the stimulus money that you had already received correctly in the recovery rebate credit section when you prepared your tax return? The IRS cross checks and if you did not enter all of the money you received, they recalculate your refund.
MY REFUND WAS LESS THAN I EXPECTED
There can be a number of reasons why your refund was less than the amount you expected. First of all, look carefully at your actual tax returns. There is sometimes confusion about the amount of refund to expect when users misinterpret the “summary” they saw in TurboTax. The amount of your refund is on your tax return. Federal refund is on line 34 on Form 1040 State tax forms are all different so we cannot tell you what line to look at on your state form. BUT it is important to actually LOOK at your tax return forms yourself and see the amounts of your tax refunds and/or tax due. A lot of confusion would be avoided by doing that.
TurboTax does not receive feedback from the IRS regarding money that was offset from your refund. If you owed back taxes, child support, student loan debt, etc. you will receive a letter of explanation from the IRS in several weeks. The WMR site will contain a message regarding your offset. It is also possible that the IRS caught a mistake you made and reduced your refund.
A possible reason for the reduction could be that the recovery rebate credit was completed incorrectly and you may have entered the amount of stimulus already received wrong, which could have reduced the refund you thought you were seeing.
It is also possible that your state reduced your refund for debts owed in your state—if the state reduced your state refund you will receive a letter from the state.
https://www.irs.gov/uac/tax-refund-offsets-pay-unpaid-debts
IRS Treasury Offset Program Call Center at 1-800-304-3107
Be aware also that your Federal refund and state refund do NOT come together. Federal and state tax returns are processed by two completely separate entities. There is no rule as to which one will come first,
Did you choose to have TT fees deducted from your Federal refund? (Remember that if you did that, you also agreed to an extra refund processing fee of $39.99)
How can I see my TurboTax fees?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2565973-how-do-i-review-my-fees-in-turbotax-online
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
Yes, of course. This issue is regarding the refund after the irs made their adjustments. On top of the agreed upon fee from TurboTax, more was taken from that tpg depositor, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. I’ve seen in other threads I am not the only person who’s had this problem
We’re aware of an issue that may have caused customers who used our Refund Transfer service to see a smaller refund than expected or none at all.
We know how important your refund is and we apologize. We’re working quickly to resolve this and make sure you receive your full refund. You'll get an email message from us shortly letting you know when to expect the rest of your refund.
In the meantime, please refer to these Turbo Tax help articles.
Why is my direct-deposited refund or check lower than the amount in TurboTax?
Why is My Tax Refund Not What I Expected?
What is a refund offset?
Refund Status: SBTPG
Topic No. 152 Refund Information
Tax Refund Tips
We know how important your refund is and we apologize. We’re working quickly to resolve this and make sure you receive your full refund. You'll get an email message from us shortly letting you know when to expect the rest of your refund.
In the meantime, please refer to these Turbo Tax help articles.
Why is my direct-deposited refund or check lower than the amount in TurboTax?
Why is My Tax Refund Not What I Expected?
What is a refund offset?
Refund Status: SBTPG
Topic No. 152 Refund Information
Tax Refund Tips
This has also happened to me. I am short 1200 and have no offsets. I have been on the phone for hours trying to contact someone and have gotten through to no one. Could you please advise and help?
If your refund is short by that much, you would need to contact the IRS to determine why the amount changed.
Please follow the instructions here to contact the IRS @Lwood550.
The IRS have stated I do not have any offsets. That the amount is incorrect through TPG. There should be no reason my refund is so off.
@Lwood550
If you have verified it is not any of the above scenarios and you utilized the Pay with My Refund method, please reach out to our third-party processor, SBTPG. You can do this at their Help page. You can call using the numbers listed, or you can scroll down on the page and clickSubmit A Request.
I am in the same boat as the original poster. TPG sent a significant amount less than what I should have received. I've called intuit in which I was unsuccessful in talking to an actual person. I submitted a request to TPG in which I have yet to receive a response from as well. Anyone have any suggestions?
In this public forum, we cannot diagnose why your refund has been reduced. For additional information, please see this Help Article or this TurboTax blog post.
@FrankL589
I've read your articles and they are not helpful which is why I tried calling. I would appreciate an actual suggestion or call me. I'd gladly leave my personal number here.
I am in the same boat. My refund is over 50% less than what I was expecting. Huge difference. I cant really get any help. I've tried IRS every weekday for the past week.
When the IRS refers to "offsets," it means back child support, Federal taxes, etc. that are being paid from a seized Federal refund. So when they tell you that you have no offsets, it's referring to those.
However, the IRS can also make "adjustments" for things like data entry errors, forgotten income, or misclaimed deductions/credits. That is more likely what's happening. The IRS does not notify TT nor TPG when they do this, so watch for a letter in the mail from the IRS in 2-4 weeks. There have been a lot of taxpayers making errors when claiming the stimulus or Child Tax Credits.
I have to it's about $1, 700 short. All of my information was correct and I owe no debt. Tpg customer service is non-existent and have not yet heard back from TurboTax. I'm losing faith in TurboTax this is the first time anything like this has ever happened in the only denominator in the mix that is changed is tpg. Please advise how I can get my money. Very dissatisfied customer.
My state and federal direct deposit refunds by TPG are GROSSLY below the refunds shown on my tax return. I don't know what to do. The errors are HUGE!! What am I supposed to do? The refunds provided by TPG are not even remotely correct. Where's my money? Fix this mess now. When can I expect the correct amounts to be posted? I have important family business pending on these refunds.
I am EXTREMELY disappointed in TurboTax for causing these errors. I've been a faithful customer for many years - nothing like this has ever happened to me before.
@sbucy1 Your state tax refund was never processed by TPG. You received the state tax refund from your state. If the amount is less than what was entered on your state tax return your state will be sending you a notice in the mail explaining their changes which reduced your state tax refund.
Only the federal tax refund can be processed by TPG because that is what you selected when you requested to have the TurboTax account fees paid from the federal tax refund.
Is the amount sent/issued by the IRS the same as the refund amount shown on your federal tax return Form 1040 Line 35a? - https://www.irs.gov/refunds
If not, then go to this IRS website for information on reduced refunds - https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc203
Have you factored in the TurboTax account fees and the TPG service charge of $39 plus any applicable sales tax?
Review your TurboTax account fees -
Sign onto the TurboTax website with the User ID you used to create the account - https://myturbotax.intuit.com/
Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and on the section Your tax returns & documents click on View Order Details
If you requested to have the TurboTax account fees deducted from your federal tax refund, the IRS will send the refund to a third party processor to have the fees and the service charge deducted. The third party processor will deduct the TurboTax fees plus the service charge and then attempt to direct deposit the remaining refund balance into the account that you entered on your tax return.
For the status of your tax refund you will need to contact the third party processor, Santa Barbara Tax Product Group, using their website - https://www.sbtpg.com/
Tax Products Group Contact Information - https://help.sbtpg.com/hc/en-us/articles/230084587-Contact-Information
On this page you can also scroll down and click on Submit a request
Or https://taxpayer.sbtpg.com/
Call 1-877-908-7228