My federal income tax refund is $300 less than what I specified on my 1040...

Vanity | 3/27/2002 | Me

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Hi all. I checked my checking account and saw that I had received my refund. It was $300 less than the figure I put on my 1040 form. Is this because of the checks the government mailed out to us? Were just advances on our refunds? I think I thought they were additional refunds to LAST year's taxes. Can anyone confirm that they had this happen as well? Thank you.

[Neets]

No, you must have made an error in your original computation...that rebate from last year has NOTHING to do with this years return.

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

Good question.
From what I've read, the $300/$600 checks we got last year were "early refunds" for taxes paid during the calendar year 2001. Therefore, if you (like most people) are filing for the tax year 2001, you already received that $300/$600 and are not entitled to it again.
Of course, I'm not a tax expert, so... Take it for what it's worth.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

If I did indeed make an error, it bothers me that they arbitrarily give me less money with no explanation. The fact that it exactly matches my $300 check from last year is what makes me think it was an advance on the refund.

[Revolting cat!]

Last year after several months passed, I unexpectedly got back from them $1000+ with no explanation. I checked my calculations twice and had the entire return entered into one of those computah programs (post facto.) I checked it again before doing this year's return and got the same numbers (mine not IRS'!) Go figure!

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

I found information at http://www.irs.gov, but still no indication of whether this is an advance against 2001 taxes, or a straight refund. At http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/n1275.pdf you find the notice that was sent out to those getting refunds. Again, this does not provide any additional information.

At http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/fs-01-09.pdf is a fact sheet which basically rehashes the same info. But they call it an 'advance payment', which leads me to believe that I was correct. I wish they'd just come out and say so. If anyone else can find explicit information stating that the $300/$600 will automatically be subtracted from your refund amount (or tax owed), I would appreciate it...

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

This document seems to imply that the advance payment should not be claimed as a rate reduction credit, which I didn't (so I filled out my form correctly). If it was indeed an advance refund, I feel like I was misled. I'm wondering exactly what the true tax reduction was (in other words, if I had filed the exact same return last year, how much less money would I get than I did this year, including the $300?).

My brain hurts. I hope someone can say definitively if I got screwed by the IRS or not.

[Jerry_M]

"My brain hurts. I hope someone can say definitively if I got screwed by the IRS or not."

I can definitively say that you, as well as every other citizen of the United States, gets screwed by the IRS. Every day, every way.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Update: I called the IRS refund number, and the automated voice said I made a mistake on my return. I go look at the tax tables, and sure enough, $300 higher. I have the tax table I used at home, not here at work. I didn't pull that number out of my *ss, so I'm thinking I must have had an earlier version of the 2001 tax table. Maybe the government released it early, then reprinted it when Congress passed the tax relief act? I'll check when I get home and post here. I suppose I have no recourse if this is the case, even though I was using an official government publication. They'll probably say I should have made sure beyond all doubt that I received a tax table with the ink still wet from recent printing. In other words, tough sh*t, maggot. I'll give an update here when I discover what happened.

[Cagey]

I imagine this means drinks are not on you tonight.

Seriously though, try to make sure you underpay your taxes each and every year. Why lend the Feds YOUR money and not be paid one cent of interest?

[Revolting cat!]

I'll check when I get home and post here.

Well, you'd better hope that your post from home isn't: Ooops!, 'coz we'll whip your *ss if it is for accusing our hard working public servants of ineptitude and worse things. And yes, this year make sure that it is you who owes the gubmint lots and lots of cash!

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Well, I checked my hard drive here at home, and I don't have it here. I must have searched for it back in February when I did my taxes. Maybe Yahoo did have the older tax tables at the time, but they're up to date now. I know I didn't pull the figure out of nowhere. There's no number anywhere near that part of the table that I could have copied by accident. I guess it's a moot point, since the current tax table corroborates the IRS, but I sure would like to prove that I didn't technically make a mistake.

[Cyber Liberty]

It sounds like a Trilateral Commission or Bilderberger conspiracy to me.

[Cyber Liberty]

Ooops! I forgot the obligatory COINCIDENCE????

[Revolting cat!]

Interesting, so you didn't by mistake look at an adjacent box or something like that, as I suspected for a spell. Could that have been a table from last year? (But that would have had your taxes higher, no?) Yahoo, then must have screwed up. Is there a way perhaps to determine the date of their file? Maybe if you view "source" there'll be some revealing info (unlikely, but what the heck!)

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Nah, no conspiracy. Most likely my theory is correct. Perhaps I'll do some web searches to see if I can find an older version of the tax table to back me up. If not, no big deal. (By the way, I know you were just joking...I just wanted to let you know I'm not a tinfoil-hat type).

[Sungirl]

HEEELLLLLLOOOOO??????

Since last year I knew that YES..the check that was sent to us LAST year was PART OF THIS YEARS TAXES.....where has everyone been? I knew this last year. If you expect to get $600 back this year in taxes as a usual thing......and you got the rebate check for $300.....then you will only get $300 on your taxes. This has been explained over and over and over for months and months and months.......

We had a tax cut on the 10% bracket at the beginning of the year.....didn't you see the increase in your January paychecks???

[poet]

April Fool! What tax cut?

[poet]

And they didn't even kiss you?

[Missiekins]

If I did indeed make an error, it bothers me that they arbitrarily give me less money with no explanation.

Several years ago, things could be different now, I made an error in subtraction on my Federal tax return and claimed an overstated refund. The IRS did deduct the error from my refund BUT they DID send a letter of explanation with my check. (This was before EFT's)

I have read all the responses to your question and no one seems to REALLY know the answer. Perhaps this should tell us all many things about how the IRS "works." I use the term loosely.