{"id":13005,"date":"2015-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/how-your-tax-refund-gets-deducted\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:54:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:54:57","slug":"how-your-tax-refund-gets-deducted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/how-your-tax-refund-gets-deducted\/","title":{"rendered":"How Your Tax Refund Gets Deducted"},"content":{"rendered":"

There's the version of tax resolution the late-night commercials sell you. Then there's how it actually works. I'm Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I've spent 32 years on the inside of these cases. Here's the real version.<\/p>\n

We all look forward to receiving a big tax refund<\/a> from Uncle Sam.\u00a0 But you may be in for a rude shock if you find that your tax refund check is very much less than what you expected.\u00a0 This may happen and the reason for it is deductions by the government.\u00a0 If the government finds you owe them money, they will take it out of your refund.\u00a0 So if you do not want to be shocked by a big deduction on your check, read on and I will show you the most common ways Uncle Sam deducts from your tax refund.<\/p>\n

Prior tax year debt<\/p>\n

If you owe on your taxes from a previous year, the IRS is entitled to take it out of your tax refund.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid there\u2019s nothing you can do about this.\u00a0 This also applies to an audit by the IRS.<\/a>\u00a0 If the audit finds you liable for taxes (or additional taxes) then it will be deducted from your tax refund.\u00a0 Knowing this will at least give you a heads up and you will not be taken by surprise when you receive your check.<\/p>\n

Student loans default<\/p>\n

If you or your spouse has not been keeping up with your student loan repayments, this debt will be deducted from your refund check.\u00a0 You are considered in default of a student loan if you have not been making payments for at least 270 days.\u00a0 Currently, about 14% of borrowers are in default.<\/p>\n

If you make joint tax returns with your spouse, his or her failure to repay a student loan will also render you liable and the IRS can intercept your refund check.\u00a0 To avoid that, you have to fill out Form 8379 Injured Spouse Allocation to request only one spouse\u2019s refund is deducted from, not both.<\/p>\n

Child support debt<\/p>\n

If you are behind in paying child support, your tax refund can be intercepted.\u00a0 This has been the practice since 1982, according to the Office of Child Support Enforcement.\u00a0 Once again, Form 8379 Injured Spouse Allocation may help make it such that only the spouse that is responsible for child support will get his tax refund deducted.<\/p>\n

Change in tax situation<\/p>\n

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has been responsible for billions of dollars of tax refunds each year.\u00a0 But if your tax situation changes, for example if you now earn more income, it could reduce the amount of tax refund you are entitled to under the EITC.<\/p>\n

If you now earn more, it may also have an effect on other tax benefits, like the premium tax credit. \u00a0Suppose you used the premium tax credit to lower the premiums of your marketplace health insurance plan.\u00a0 If your income increases this year, you may even end up owing money because you are not entitled to as much tax credit as you received.<\/p>\n

Identity theft<\/p>\n

If someone has access to your Social Security number, he can use your name to steal your tax refund.\u00a0 If this happens, you will not just receive a reduced refund, you won\u2019t receive any refund at all.\u00a0 Instead, you will be notified by the IRS that someone has filed a tax return under your name.\u00a0 Should that happen, make a police report and inform the IRS straight away.\u00a0 Submit IRS Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, and continue to send in your tax return. \u00a0You should also place a Fraud Alert on your credit report and lodge a complaint with the FTC.<\/p>\n

Check out more Tax News<\/a> stories by clicking that link.<\/p>\n

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There's the version of tax resolution the late-night commercials sell you. Then there's how it actually works. I'm Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I've spent 32 years on the inside of these cases. Here's the real version. We all look forward to receiving a big tax refund from Uncle Sam.\u00a0 But you may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[591],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-13005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs-news","tag-irs-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28904,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13005\/revisions\/28904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}