Did you get confused by a summary shown by TurboTax that showed a federal refund and a state balance due, or vice versa? Please look very carefullly at your actual tax return forms and see what they say. If you have a federal refund it will be on line 20 of the Form 1040. If you owe for the federal return it will be on line 22.
We do not know what state you are in, so it is up to you to look very carefully at your state form.
Your state tax due cannot be paid from your federal refund.
It is not possible to pay your state tax due from your federal refund, nor is it possible to pay a federal tax due from a state refund. The federal and state treasuries are completely separate from each other. You may have seen a TurboTax summary of your federal and state amounts that confused you into thinking one was “paying” the other. It is not. If you have federal tax due you can pay by mailing your payment, having the payment taken out of a designated bank account, or you can pay directly on the IRS website. You must pay your state tax due using the state’s preferred method of receiving payment. For most states that will be by making a payment to the state’s own tax website, or by mailing a check or money order.
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1900884-what-are-my-options-for-getting-my-state-refund-or-for-pay...
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
