203 Code – Not showing on Transcripts, though. Help?!

Same thing happened to me. Received no notice from Dept. of Ed this whole year regarding a potential offset. Had some loans that ended up in default because they switched lenders so I didn’t know about it till of course after I filed my taxes and had high hopes for my refund.
To anyone who is getting the code 203 message and calling the hotline to confirm their debts- if it’s from the Dept. of Education, don’t let the word “may” fool you. They WILL take your refund and if you owe more for your student loans than you plan to get back in your refund, be prepared not to see a dime of it.

WMR will fool you too- I had a DDD of 2/21/19 and when I woke up yesterday, the website claimed my refund was “sent” and the full amount was showing on the left side. I stumbled upon this website and tried to find as many forums as I could relating to my situation. Many people were in the same boat as me. I checked to see if anyone had also gotten the refund “sent” status and were one of the lucky ones to not be offset by the Dept. of Education.
Needless to say, I woke up today, still feeling excited until I checked WMR and saw that the status had changed overnight to reflect the offset being taken and the adjusted amount switched to 0 on the left side.

Good luck to everyone else but please don’t get your hopes up if you have a code 203 and some kind of debt verified on the hotline…

Same thing happened to me. Received no notice from Dept. of Ed this whole year regarding a potential offset. Had some loans that ended up in default because they switched lenders so I didn’t know about it till of course after I filed my taxes and had high hopes for my refund.

To anyone who is getting the code 203 message and calling the hotline to confirm their debts- if it’s from the Dept. of Education, don’t let the word “may” fool you. They WILL take your refund and if you owe more for your student loans than you plan to get back in your refund, be prepared not to see a dime of it.

WMR will fool you too- I had a DDD of 2/21/19 and when I woke up yesterday, the website claimed my refund was “sent” and the full amount was showing on the left side. I stumbled upon this website and tried to find as many forums as I could relating to my situation. Many people were in the same boat as me. I checked to see if anyone had also gotten the refund “sent” status and were one of the lucky ones to not be offset by the Dept. of Education.

Needless to say, I woke up today, still feeling excited until I checked WMR and saw that the status had changed overnight to reflect the offset being taken and the adjusted amount switched to 0 on the left side.

Good luck to everyone else but please don’t get your hopes up if you have a code 203 and some kind of debt verified on the hotline…

Same thing happened to me. Received no notice from Dept. of Ed this whole year regarding a potential offset. Had some loans that ended up in default because they switched lenders so I didn’t know about it till of course after I filed my taxes and had high hopes for my refund.

To anyone who is getting the code 203 message and calling the hotline to confirm their debts- if it’s from the Dept. of Education, don’t let the word “may” fool you. They WILL take your refund and if you owe more for your student loans than you plan to get back in your refund, be prepared not to see a dime of it.

WMR will fool you too- I had a DDD of 2/21/19 and when I woke up yesterday, the website claimed my refund was “sent” and the full amount was showing on the left side. I stumbled upon this website and tried to find as many forums as I could relating to my situation. Many people were in the same boat as me. I checked to see if anyone had also gotten the refund “sent” status and were one of the lucky ones to not be offset by the Dept. of Education.

Needless to say, I woke up today, still feeling excited until I checked WMR and saw that the status had changed overnight to reflect the offset being taken and the adjusted amount switched to 0 on the left side.

Bastards. Good luck to everyone else but please don’t get your hopes up if you have a code 203 and some kind of debt verified on the hotline…

@Brooke Adams-
Same thing happened to me. Received no notice from Dept. of Ed this whole year regarding a potential offset. Had some loans that ended up in default because they switched lenders so I didn’t know about it till of course after I filed my taxes and had high hopes for my refund.

To anyone who is getting the code 203 message and calling the hotline to confirm their debts- if it’s from the Dept. of Education, don’t let the word “may” fool you. They WILL take your refund and if you owe more for your student loans than you plan to get back in your refund, be prepared not to see a dime of it.

WMR will fool you too- I had a DDD of 2/21/19 and when I woke up yesterday, the website claimed my refund was “sent” and the full amount was showing on the left side. I stumbled upon this website and tried to find as many forums as I could relating to my situation. Many people were in the same boat as me. I checked to see if anyone had also gotten the refund “sent” status and were one of the lucky ones to not be offset by the Dept. of Education.

Needless to say, I woke up today, still feeling excited until I checked WMR and saw that the status had changed overnight to reflect the offset being taken and the adjusted amount switched to 0 on the left side.

Bastards. Good luck to everyone else but please don’t get your hopes up if you have a code 203 and some kind of debt verified on the hotline…

I have topic 203, called hotline says 1 debt for dept edu but no amount given. Called the dept of edu and they said if your on the list they are taking it all. Called the loan servicer whom I just found out who that was and started the process of a payment plan. Dept of edu said the treasury sent me notice of an offset but that’s a lie, I’ve gotten nothing yet! DD is 2/22, shows full amt to be deposited still, nothing changed. Transcript still show 846 as well. Guess I will wait til my dd comes and file the damn injured spouse form, my husband is the only income, I have zero income! If I had known about this prior I would of taken care of it, this came to me as a surprise! Nothing from the loan servicer on defaults or anything! Been upset for two days now since finding this all out!

Thanks, Jess :) It’s not pending online so I did call and she didn’t see anything either. I am filing an injured spouse claim but was told to wait to be sure it wasn’t deposited and the statuses change so I don’t interrupt the process. I’ll wait until I see a status change, I guess. And you made me giggle with the paper returns – gosh those were so long ago haha! I don’t miss it!

@momjess No, nothing changed. In other threads online on the DDD people mentioned their WMR changed. Only one person that we’ve found said their transcripts changed, as well so I was curious if it would show it since a Google search showed it should and my CPA friend also said it should be reflected. So odd. Even the TOP line should have changed today, per others’ posts. Have you ever experienced this?

@Curiosity I’m not sure where your anger is coming from, lol. I asked questions on this specific situation (203/offsets) not when you think WMR & ATs update. I simply told you that you’re not correct on the update aspect nor on being weekly because it’s an offset. Would you like screen shots of prior years to prove we’ve always been weekly? LOL! I’m sorry that you didn’t like being corrected, I simply let you know that’s not the case, nor was it what I was asking. Now, if you have specifics on the questions I DID ask, by all means, please share. :) I hope your day gets better for you! :)

It’s funny you ask questions because you don’t know then when someone gives you information you dismiss it. Either you know or you don’t! You asked if something should have changed to which I replied….
If you weren’t weekly the offset would now put you into the qualifiers for being a weekly.
I didn’t say you can only update on saturdays you said that Your DDD was the 13th so like I said if you’re weekly & have been for years like you say your transcript won’t update to reflect any code changes until this Thursday & that update will be reflected in an update to WMR Friday evening into Saturday morning.

Goodluck & Goodbye!

@Curiosity I’ve been weekly for years. No offsets then. They don’t coincide and WMR has updated other days than Saturday each year. I don’t trust that weekly theory for offset reasons & due to past history.

Well you’re probably gonna be weekly bc of the offset so your transcripts won’t update until Thursday & WMR won’t update until Saturday morning.

***Update***
Today is our DDD. No changes anywhere, not even the TOP hotline. (WMR, TOP, our bank, Account Transcript, NSLDS) Shouldn’t something have changed?

Also, the NSLDS still shows my outstanding amount owed – no payments received.

Thank you all! I have 2 bars, full refund amount still showing and nothing updated other than filing, W-2 & Refund codes. I’ll update with info when & if it changes. Please feel free to do the same!

Here’s another piece of info too:

If you don’t receive a notice: Contact the BFS’s TOP call center at 800-304-3107 or TDD 866-297-0517, Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST. Contact the IRS only if your original refund amount shown on the BFS offset notice differs from the refund amount shown on your tax return.”

@topicguy

1800-304-3107 is the phone number make sure you listen to option 1 & option 2 sometimes option 1 says no offset but option 2 has one.

TopicGuy

Look at your transcripts too. My offset was a couple of years ago but it did show up on my WMR screen after the second bar posted. They might now show it until the third bar shows and the refund is sent? I think if the third bar shows and it still shows the full amount this is what the IRS sent to your bank. So I would wait until then. I’d also check the transcripts as well to see if it shows up there as that might give you an adjusted amount too.

Does anyone know the BFS number to call to check what is coming out ? Thanks!

@Jessica I have the 203 topic for DDD of 2/13 and I just check the WMR with the second bar showing but when I check the amount on the left side of the screen it shows the full amount of my refund, does this mean I will get the full amount despite it showing topic 203 ?

File for injured spouse immediately.

Experienced this 2 years ago. Recieved refund a month later.

Good luck.

They are taking my fiancé’s full refund he has tax topic 203 & the offset line says they are taking the full amount but it didn’t turn to 0.00 on WMR it still says his amount.

As soon as it updated to the 2nd bar I saw the reduced refund amount

jessica143 How long did it take your amount to change to zero?

Posted too soon…

I also have been seeing that the 203 code pops up on WMR once a DDD has been assigned.

Your refund amount on the WKR screen should show you what it has been reduced to. If they took it all it will most likely show $0.00

I had an offset one year for unemployment and WMR is how I found out. No notice etc. just saw my expected refund amount was reduced and tax topic 203 was posted once the DDD had been given

I saw this somewhere as well:

***Typically once you have been given a DDD then the offset is no longer on the Offset line because it was already paid. If you have a DDD and the offset line still has a debt, then that debt is likely taking your full refund. You will get a letter in a few weeks explaining what was taken and why. What remained of my refund still came on the DDD I was given, so no delay.

The offset line only applies to non federal tax debt

Maybe contact the loan services to find out for sure if they did request the offset. They should be able to tell you. Your transcripts will probably update at some point but it might not be before the original refund was supposed to go out depending on when they update the transcripts.

I would call the lender directly and ask. If they are I would get the injured spouse claim filed ASAP so you can get all/part of your refund without delaying longer.

@banner1124 does your transcript reflect it?

@Sally did you press 1 or 2? Mine said nothing on 1 but said the student loans for 2.
I’m so sorry for both of y’all!

I also have the 203 code and it states my date and that my return would be reduced. When I call the offset hotline there is nothing there for either social. I do know I owe NY state for last year. And I do understand that NY state can take whats owed from either return. But why isnt there a code on my transcript on atleast the amount they are taking. The only amount showing is the refund amount.

Thanks, Aminah J. I know what it says is coming out but I’m a full time student again and it shouldn’t even come out. Our CPA said that, anyway. She also said the code should show as an offset on the transcript so we are so confused.

Anytime I’ve been offset transcripts have never shown a code because its not the irs that taking the money.. When you call the BFS # it will tell you whats coming out. Hope this helps

I forgot to mention WMR states “Approved” and our refund will be sent 2/13/19. It shows the full amount, but mentions the 203 code and it may be reduced.