Hardship Refund for Fed. Offset

[MikeC]

I filed with Turbo Tax:
01/18
01/22-accepted
WMR-1 bar 152 tt

Indiana:
01/18
01/25-accepted

Was processing until 02/02 when I completed an ID Verification from a dated letter of 01/30…
Anyways immediately after verifying, my Indiana WMR went to “return sent to IRS for offset” contact them for more info.

I’m not special and do owe back tax for early withdrawal but am definitely struggling financially. I read that they possibly will refund my return under certain circumstances for hardship reasons. Facing eviction and utility disconnect, I have both. Is this true? Has anyone successfully done this? And how? I plan to call Monday 02/04…any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[MikeC]

I have not yet addressed my tax obligation with the irs. It was for an early withdrawal from a 401 which should’ve been for a hardship at the time, but wasn’t filed that way. I believe they hit me with all the taxes and penalties they could. It was from 2015 and I am embarrassed to say I have kinda ignored it. I have moved quite a few times and certified letters were never picked up…I’m thinking it’s between 4K to 5k. How minimal or major does this hardship have to be? Ive ended up having to overdraft my account to pay rent (to avoid stopping the process of eviction) and have utilities up my rear with disconnect notices. I appreciate the responses and really just trying to get everything in order before calling. Not sure what form you were referring to, I found a 433-a, but not sure that’s it.

[Lorin Dannar]

I was able to get my offset taxes 3 years ago filing hardship. Fill out the hardship form and send with copies of the bills and anything else you think would show you need that money to avoid shut off. I also added a letter about my situation and why I needed my refund

I got a letter weeks later that they were sending a check and approved my full refund going back to me

Let me know if you have questions

[Curiosity]

They will help you will literally everything you need that’s tax related, hardship refunds , setting up a payment plan & all that stuff. If your situation is dire you’ll definitely want to use an advocate they will be much more helpful and flexible & can get the irs to be more flexible than you could just calling the irs outright to try and work something out with them yourself. But you can definitely call the ira first to at least find out exactly what you owe and if they are gonna take the entire thing out of your refund that sort of thing, it could be a situation where you don’t even end up needing an advocate so I guess call it’s first to get the details but don’t agree to any payments or anything that nature unless it actually meets your needs. Otherwise just collect the info you need for your records and then call the taxpayer advocate line so they can get started for you.

[Chief Trollweasel]

Another tax season balla!!!! Get your proof fabricated and spot on before its asked for….

[MikeC]

Thank you for the response. No ATCT/EIC (PATH) I do have other dependent/ctc. So I shouldn’t bother calling the IRS? Just go straight to the advocate hotline? I’m a little ashamed because I’ve received some certified letters from the irs but “failed” to sign/retrieve them from the post office…I obviously will need to address the debt and what? So I actually have no idea of what I owe. I called the TOP/offset line and there was nothing owed there so I’m assuming it is all federal tax owed. Will the advocate help with a plan or just help my immediate need of the refund? Thanks again

[Curiosity]

Yes it is true you will need to contact the taxpayer advocate line and tell them the situation they may ask for documentation to prove your situation so be prepared for that. Also this only applies if you’re not affected by the path act if you are claiming EIC or ACTC you can still contact them but they may not be able to do anything until the path act hold gets released

[Author]

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