I efiled a couple of weeks ago and I owed. I paid the due amount and yesterday I got a refund check from IRS without any accompanying letter. Does this mean someone else filed it on my behalf
If you owed and you paid but now you got a refund, something is wrong. I’d call the IRS.
Make sure it’s really from the IRS? Somehow I think you’ll get a call about where to send the “mistaken refund”, then the deposit will be pulled back as fraudulent and you’ll be out the money.
Or maybe the government just gave you money for no reason. Not the way to bet.
Yes, you definitely need to call the IRS and also file a fraud alert with the credit reporting agencies if you haven’t already frozen your credit.
In the past I’ve received checks for unexpected refunds and promptly deposited them into my bank account and have never had an issue. If there’s a mistake, they’ll let you know.
That happened to me a few years ago (I received a state refund check before I had filed), and yes someone had filed state and federal returns on my behalf, you should call the IRS and also your state tax authority to straighten out.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1742015-tax-refund-good-news-bad-news-p1.html
Hmm, is it a small amount of money? I’ve gotten IRS refund checks after I’ve paid (because apparently I overpaid), for small amounts of money, with no explanation. I’m sure you know what a real treasury check looks like. My son e-filed a few weeks ago and already got his refund deposited in his bank account.
If’s a large amount of money, I would be concerned. If it’s just a little bit, I’d think that maybe I just overpaid. And I’ve never gotten any explanation, just a check. But of course, always after I’ve paid.
@Iglooo It’s been in the news that this a specific scam this year. You get a refund check, and then you will hear from the “IRS” that they mad a mistake and they will give you instructions on how to return it. It’s all a fraud.
In the past when I overpaid, IRS would send my side by side explanation how my filing was corrected by IRS resulting in refund. No letter this time just a check. That in the past meant I requested a refund. I am trying to call IRS. So far, can’t get through.
It sounds like a scam, since the IRS never moves that fast, lol.
Good luck getting hold of the IRS. When I called to see if an agent who showed up at our door was legitimate, I was on hold for an hour and a half. Turns out the guy really was an IRS agent. I had neglected to turn in a quarterly business report (just the report - I had paid the taxes). When I got a notice about it I DID send it in, but they said they didn’t receive it. So he showed up to check on it. Really bizarre. My accountant said he had never heard of that happening.
I’d be creeped out too and would never let such a person inside nor would I hand him anything tax-related.
I had an over payment a couple of years ago because I had put in a lower amount of quarterly taxes than I actually paid. I received not only a check, but a letter of explanation that was very detailed.
I would contact them. It happened to my daughter a few years back - she got a $3000 refund and her income for the year was about $3500. It took about 6 months to get straightened out and they never did tell us what had happened. We did not cash the check. It was a real pain in the neck. They eventually sent her the correct refund of $11 along with a few cents interest.
Does it look exactly like a US Treasury check?
How much is it for?
You wouldn’t have been able to file it electronically if someone else had already filed for you.
If this was a scam, why wouldn’t they wait until it was more likely that you’d filed your taxes, well after April 17th?
You can go to, “Where’s my refund” on the irs.gov website, and see if it actually is from the IRS (I’d assume that information would be on there).
As far as if someone filed in your name. Someione did file in our name a few years ago. Whoever files first wins! Since they filed first ours was rejected. What a hassle that identity theft was. They said if we had filed first the other would have been rejected. So, if your return was accepted then you should have no issues.
Pretty sure this is just the most recent scam you’re caught up in.
My daughter’s was filed electronically (this back in 2008 - goodness, 10 years ago) and was accepted. Her income for the year was about $3,500 and she was due a very small refund. There were some numbers on the information that came with the $3000 check that bore no relationship to her income. It took months of writing - trying to call was hopeless as the person I got hold of didn’t know his A#$ from his elbow. Someone finally got assigned the case (after they started trying to dun her for the $3000 with penalties and interest even though she never cashed it). Her letter told us to call with any questions and when we tried we got an answer machine that had a message saying she did not take phone calls. We finally called the taxpayer’s advocate at about month 6. They told us to give it one more month as it usually takes 6 months - if it was not resolved after 6 months they would sort it out for us. Sure enough at the 6 month mark the correct refund arrived with no word of explanation.
It actually reduced me to tears of frustration.
We are one of the millions who still file by paper, and got our refund two weeks ago. But I checked the Where’s My Refund every day
I’ve had this happen…but the lack of letter of explanation is a bit disconcerting.