For over 9 years, I’ve never received a tax refund despite taxes being withheld from every single paycheck. Since 2017, every refund I’m entitled to gets intercepted and applied to some mystery “balance owed.”
In 2017 I was fresh out of high school, in junior college, made about $23k, and filed with TurboTax. That return — and every year since — has been “withheld.” Over time, this has added up to more than $8,000 in seized refunds, which is wild because I genuinely do not make much money.
In 2024, I paid an accountant $350 to file my 2023 taxes. It showed a $220 refund, but I got a letter saying it was withheld and applied to a balance. When I asked her to look into it, she said it would cost $2,000 more, which I couldn’t afford.
So I switched to a very reputable CPA firm. Paid $400 for filing + $150 for POA. They reviewed everything and said all prior years (including 2017) were filed correctly. I was told to expect a $937 refund… then got another letter saying it was withheld again.
The head CPA from the firm called me and said she had spoken directly with the IRS but could not determine where an alleged balance over $1,800 came from. She told me to just pay $959, since the rest was supposedly past the statute of limitations. In FL the statue of limitations is 10 years; we are at 9.
At no point has the IRS explained:
• where this balance originated
• why my refunds keep getting taken
• or how someone with consistent payroll withholding ends up owing thousands
It honestly blows my mind that the IRS seems to have taken thousands of dollars from me over nearly a decade without providing a clear accounting.
Has anyone dealt with something like this?
Is this a Taxpayer Advocate situation? Identity issue? IRS accounting error?
Any advice would really help because I feel completely stuck. My fear is, that I pay >$1500 to put this to rest only for it to reappear next year.
https://i.redd.it/451mhg19xybg1.jpeg
Posted by emberxili
16 Comments
Has the CPA reviewed the transcript of your 2017 taxes to determine where this balance is coming from? It should not be a mystery. Something sounds very wrong here from your description of your 2017 income.
It is hardly a mystery why. The letter indicates you owe taxes for 2017. Contact the IRS yourself and find out why they think you do.
> The head CPA from the firm called me and said she had spoken directly with the IRS but could not determine where an alleged balance over $1,800 came from.
Nonsense. The IRS is collecting it. The IRS knows where the balance came from.
Just log into the IRS website and it will tell you what you owe and why
You need to get a transcript of your 2017 taxes and also a 2017 wage and income transcript (the CPA you paid to look into this should have both)
Did you have any past-due federal debt like student loans, child support, or something like in 2017 where you filed married filing jointly and the spouse owed a lot of money and you didn’t file an injured spouse form, etc.?
You need to find a new CPA…🤣
I’d start looking real hard at the 2017 tax return for starters!
How are nine years’ worth of refunds being “seized”? It seems like they are applying your 2024 overpayment to an existing debt. I suggest paying the balance due and treat it as a lesson learned. Paying a CPA to possibly find out that the IRS was right all along is going to cost much more than $1,800.
You screwed up your 2017 taxes. Because 9 years of debt for someone who only made $23k makes no sense.
You may need to re-file or amend the 2017 taxes, and you might get something back when you do.
I had a friend who this happened to. His father had been collecting some benefit on his behalf for years without his knowledge. He was responsible to pay it all back.
This was 10+ years ago, and I dont remember the details. Anyway have you tried calling the irs? Someone should be able to tell you where the debt comes from and who the money is going too.
Have you tried making an ID.me account for the IRS? It will allow you to see letters like that and some other types (like why you owe) of letters and see why and which year you are owing for.
Crazy how IRS charging us for interest but doesn’t accumulate interest for holding our money for a year 😅
Wait, the letter literally says taxes owed for 2017. So that’s why. You should’ve made an IRS account a long time ago to see what’s going on. Sounds like all the letters that were suppose to be sent to you got sent to a different address. You will be able to see those on the account. You need to get a copy of your 2017 tax return because something’s seriously wrong. Also get a transcript of that year from the IRS account. Can be accessed from the IRS account. You’ll end up having to do an amendment if you want anything of this corrected and might possibly get all your seized refunds back.
Did you ever contact the IRS?
May be related to identity theft and your SSID is being used by someone else.
So it sounds like you had an issue with your 2017 return and every day it’s not corrected, it gains interest.
Your annual refunds aren’t enough to wipe it out, so you’re just paying off the previous year’s interest with your returns.