The IRS provides a toll-free number, (800) 304-3107, to call for information about tax offsets. You can call this number, go through the automated prompts, and see if you have any offsets pending on your social security number.
BFS will send you a notice if an offset occurs. The notice will reflect the original refund amount, your offset amount, the agency receiving the payment, and the address and telephone number of the agency. BFS will notify the IRS of the amount taken from your refund once your refund date has passed.
Call the Bureau of the Fiscal Service directly at (800) 304-3107. Listen to the prerecorded message and do as instructed.
Call the FMS at 1-800-304-3107 to find out if your refund was reduced because of an offset. Call the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service at 1-877-777-4778 (or visit www.irs.gov/advocate) if you feel your refund was reduced in error.
Beginning with offers accepted on or after November 1, 2021, the IRS generally will not offset refunds to tax periods included on the offer after the offer acceptance date. For example, the taxpayer has an offer accepted on November 15, 2021. They file their 2021 tax return on April 15, 2022 showing a refund.
In a nutshell, a Notice of Intent to Offset is an informational letter that tells you what's about to happen. It means that you owe the IRS back taxes or you owe a significant chunk of money to a different government agency. It also means that the IRS is planning on seizing your tax refund.
However, the government halted all student loan collections on federal student loans at the start of the pandemic, and the relief currently lasts through May 1, 2022. This means that your tax return won't be taken to offset your outstanding federal student loan balance for the 2021 tax season.
Will your tax refund be garnished? You must have federal student loans in default to have your tax refund garnished. Federal student loans enter default after 270 days of past-due payments. Private student loans in default aren't eligible for tax refund garnishment.
Unpaid Debts or Taxes
Outstanding debts can come back to haunt you, delaying your tax refund. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) will reduce or withhold your tax refund if you owe certain types of debt. This is called a tax offset and it can apply to: Past-due child support.
Send in Form 433-A with any necessary documentation and wait for a response. If you qualify, you are switched to Currently Not Collectible status, and the IRS doesn't garnish your refund.
Allow up to 6 months for agency processing.
You can call the IRS and see if they are showing a record of the garnishment. If they do not, you will need to contact the You can contact the BFS's TOP call center at 800-304-3107 to inquire if there is a pending offset for you and who it was.
The Pre-Intercept Notice allows the debtor to resolve or dispute the debt before you intercept their funds. The notice requirement applies to each new debt incurred after you submit the account and before you increase the requested intercept balance.
Can I receive a tax refund if I am currently making payments under an installment agreement or payment plan for another federal tax period? No, one of the conditions of your installment agreement is that the IRS will automatically apply any refund (or overpayment) due to you against taxes you owe.
If you owe state taxes and you're due a federal refund, the state government can take that check before it hits your bank account. The Treasury Offset Program allows the state to intercept your refund without your permission.
The U.S. Department of Education has suspended the seizure of tax refunds, Social Security and other government payments to satisfy defaulted student loans until November, the agency said. About 9 million people have a federal student loan in default, which means they've fallen at least 270 days behind on payments.
Temporary Suspension of Offset Program until July 31, 2021 June 2021 Tax News. FTB has temporarily suspended the collection activities of the Interagency Intercept Collection (IIC) Program in keeping with the Governor's March 12, 2020, Executive Order .
In California, there's now a 90-day grace period for mortgage payments and a moratorium on initiating foreclosure sales or evictions. But for anyone facing economic hardship, one thing that remains unchanged is wage garnishments. For the most part, novel coronavirus is having no effect on court-issued garnishments.
The Department of Education will not start taking tax refunds until November 2022 — unless President Biden extends the freeze once more. Ahead, you'll learn how to avoid a tax refund offset and, if your refund has already been taken, how to get some of it back with a hardship reversal.
Timeframes for receiving and sending funds
Non-joint refund: Federal law requires a state to disburse a non-joint refund offset no later than 30 calendar days after receipt unless there is a special circumstance (for example, a pending appeal).
If your refund was less than you expected, it may have been reduced by the IRS or a Financial Management Service (FMS) to pay past-due child support, federal agency nontax debts, state income tax obligations, or unemployment compensation debts owed to a state.
You may have a refund offset, or you may have selected the Refund Processing Service (also called pay-with-your-refund) gives you the option to deduct your TurboTax fees from your federal tax refund.
A notice of intercepted funds is a letter informing you that an agency of, or the state or federal government itself, intend to withhold all or a portion of your tax refund due to debts owed.
Tax refund amounts can only be applied against relevant debts. A 'relevant debt' is a child support debt, a child support related debt or a carer debt. A 'relevant debtor' is the person who is liable to pay a relevant debt (CSRC Act section 4(1)).