the way you phrased your original question it seemed as if you had not yet filed and Turbotax was showing you owed a lot of money. now it seems that's incorrect. Your problem may be that since you indicated it as an estimated tax payment it would have been treated as a 2021 estimated tax payment and not a balance due 2020 payment. if that's the case which seems likely, you'll need to contact the IRS to move the payment to 2020. even though you listed it on your 2020 return, the IRS would have ignored it unless you designated with Direct Pay that the payment was a balance due
DIRECT PAY selections and entries should have been
balance due
income tax - form 1040
2020
have you checked your tax account transcript or record of account transcript to see if the payment posted to 2020 or 2021
Request Online
What You Need
To register and use this service, you need:
your SSN, date of birth, filing status and mailing address from latest tax return,
access to your email account,
your personal account number from a credit card, mortgage, home equity loan, home equity line of credit or car loan, and
a mobile phone linked to your name (for faster registration) or ability to receive an activation code by mail.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript
if it was posted to the wrong year your options
1) call the IRS at 800-829-1040 - earlier this year because of IRS staffing shortages and an antiquated system many callers were not getting through
First choose your language.
Then 2
Then 1
Then 3
Then 2
When asked for SSN do nothing it will ask twice
Then 2
Then 4
You should then be transferred to an agent, but there is likely to be a long wait.
2) use the services of a tax pro - they have different facilities and means of contacting the IRS on your behalf. of course they will likely charge you for their services.
3) the IRS tax advocate service will not help you until other measures to resolve the payment issue have been exhausted
If you believe your IRS account doesn’t show one or more payments you’ve made, it’s best to start with a transcript of your account. Before contacting the IRS, first check with your financial institution to verify whether the check has cleared your bank account. You can also request a tax account transcript which will show all of the payments the IRS has received on your account.
If you notice that a payment you made hasn’t been applied to your account, you can contact the IRS toll-free line at 800-829-1040 to ask the IRS to look for your payment.
since you used direct pay the payment should appear on a bank statement. have it at hand when calling the IRS.
