IRS Giving Away Money?

[Toad_Passenger]

We were supposed to have our Federal refund direct deposited yesterday, so I went to the IRS website to check on it. Turns out that the IRS is informing us that they are adding $800.00 to the refund and it will be deposited next week.

Anyone else ever have this happen to them? I'm very surprised that the IRS would actually give extra money, rather than just saying, "you made the mistake, here's the refund you requested." Pleasant surprise, though.

 

[SandrA9810]

it could be from that 400$ tax break the president put into effect last year. So you'd get an extra 800 if filing together.
That is if you didn't recieve it earlier in the year.

 

[Goofyzgurl]

We just had our taxes done yesterday and that sounds like the same amount that our tax person gave us. She said that it was $400 or $800 for filing jointly making work pay tax credit.

 

[amcnj]

My understanding of this is that if you have a paycheck that has withholding tax taken from it, your employer might have already adjusted withholding for this, and thus you already received it in the form of reduced witholding during the year.

Anyone know more about this for sure?

.

 

[tzolkin]

There have been several threads about this. I would search them for some better explanations than I can give.

I was confused about whether or not we were supposed to add in the $800 Making Work Pay credit. It seems that most people are. A few others have posted that they also did not add it into their return and got the extra $800 anyway.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

My understanding of this is that if you have a paycheck that has withholding tax taken from it, your employer might have already adjusted withholding for this, and thus you already received it in the form of reduced witholding during the year.

Anyone know more about this for sure?

.

As the PP stated....there have been lots of threads about this. Yes, your paycheck was adjusted but you still can claim the $800. It's an accounting thing. Make sure you complete schedule M when you file your taxes to see if you are eligible.

 

[hopemax]

Yes, the $800 needs to be taken on the Schedule M, even though you got the money by your withholding changing, for accounting purposes.

The example I keep using.

Let's say pre-stimulus, your income would result in a tax burden of $6000.

Then came the stimulus of $800 for married, filing jointly, which would decrease your tax burden to $5200.

The government wanted you to have the money sooner, so they adjusted the withholding tables to take into account that you would only owe taxes of $5200 this year and not $6000.

However, when you go to figure out your taxes, the TAX tables, remember the ones in the back of the paper booklets that you would have to look up before we all used software... those still say you owe $6000, and not the correct $5200.

To fix that, you fill out the schedule M and take the $800 credit .

 

[splash5]

Does anyone know how this credit affects Turbotax users? It asked if our employers gave us the credits. When you answer yes, it doesn't give you the $800.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

We did our on H&R Block and it calulated it for us to see if we could get it our not. We were and it went on with the rest of the return.

 

[NYCDiane]

It's called "Making Work Pay".... single gets $400, couples get $800.

 

[maggiew]

Does anyone know how this credit affects Turbotax users? It asked if our employers gave us the credits. When you answer yes, it doesn't give you the $800.

We used TurboTax and it gave us the credit (well, we only got $730 for some reason).

Maggie

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Thanks for all of the replies. We did e-file, but I used the "book" tables to figure out the tax owed. Since it seems these were not adjusted, I guess the IRS made the adjustment for us. It's awful nice of them to do that, they didn't have to, and I wouldn't be the wiser.

 

[splash5]

We used TurboTax and it gave us the credit (well, we only got $730 for some reason).

Maggie

Did you answer yes to the question of whether your employer gave you any credits?

 

[deerhart]

We got an extra $500.00 back from the IRS when I got my deposit. Still waiting to see what it is from (we had already claimed the $800 work credit) to see if it affects my state taxes. Not sure what I missed unless I transposed some numbers when entering my w-2s.

 

[JamieW]

Does anyone know how this credit affects Turbotax users? It asked if our employers gave us the credits. When you answer yes, it doesn't give you the $800.

When I did Turbotax, it asked me if I had received the credit in the form of a check from my employer. I answered no because I hadn't and got the money. Just answer no.

 

[erin.w]

The IRS gave me less $175, because the math was done incorrectly on my student loan interest (TurboTax's side not mine). That was a disappointment.

 

[okeydokey]

The instructions for Schedule M states that even if you got reduced withholdings throughout the year you still had to fill out the Schedule M for the 800 to actually get the tax cut. I didn't dot hat and when I talked to the IRS today they said to file an amended form (1040X) and include the Schedule M. He said they are trying to catch them as they come in, but they didn't catch mine. Who knows how long it will take to process but I'm grateful to be getting it.

 

[stitchlover]

Hmmm...I will have to check the packet when my accountant sends it to me. I would assume a CPA would have processed all that appropriately?