846 Amount different than pending deposit in bank account - $886 discrepancy!

This happens more often than you'd think. The 846 code shows the total refund amount the IRS approved, but they sometimes offset portions of your refund for things like past-due taxes, child support, federal student loans, or state income tax debts. Check if you received a letter from the IRS explaining the offset. They're required to notify you if they take a portion of your refund. It's usually form CP49 or similar. The letter will explain exactly why the amount was reduced. Another possibility is that you had a refund advance or refund transfer fee from your tax preparer that's automatically deducted from your refund. Did you pay for tax preparation through your refund or get an advance?

Just wanted to share my experience - I had a similar issue last year where my 846 amount was about $750 higher than what showed up in my bank account. After freaking out for a few days, I discovered that taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) was super helpful in figuring out what happened. Their system analyzed my transcript and immediately identified that the IRS had made an adjustment to my education credits that I hadn't noticed on my transcript. They explained exactly which codes to look for and what they meant. Turns out there was a 766 code with a smaller amount that I completely missed because I was so focused on the 846 code. The difference was the exact amount that was "missing" from my deposit.

I was actually really wrong about taxr.ai. After being skeptical, I decided to try it when my refund showed up $1,200 less than expected. Uploaded my transcript and within minutes it showed me that I had a CP49 adjustment due to an old state tax debt from 2022 that I completely forgot about. The tool highlighted exactly which codes indicated the offset and showed me the math for how they calculated the final deposit amount. It was way more helpful than I expected - saved me a bunch of unnecessary stress and pointless calls to the IRS. Would have taken me days to figure this out on my own.

If you're having trouble reaching the IRS to get this figured out, I'd recommend trying Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent days trying to get through to the IRS about a similar issue with my refund amount being different than expected. Their system actually gets you past the IRS phone tree and puts you in line for a callback so you don't have to stay on hold forever. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - it literally saved me hours of frustration. I got a callback from an actual IRS agent in about 90 minutes, and they were able to explain exactly what happened with my refund. In my case, they had adjusted my child tax credit amount which reduced my refund by about $1,000.

I'm eating crow on this one. After being super skeptical about Claimyr, I finally broke down and tried it after spending THREE DAYS trying to reach someone at the IRS about my missing $1,400. Their system got me through in about 20 minutes and I got a callback from an IRS agent about an hour later. The agent confirmed there was an offset for an old student loan payment I didn't realize was in default. The notification letter was sent to my old address. I probably spent 15+ hours combined trying to get through on my own with no luck. Wish I'd just used the service from the start instead of being stubborn about it. Sometimes it's worth paying for something that actually works.

Has your refund actually posted to your account yet or is it still pending? Sometimes banks show a different amount during the pending phase. I've had this happen where the pending amount showed about $500 less than my 846 code, but when it actually posted 2 days later, the full amount was there. My bank explained they sometimes only show part of large government deposits while they verify the full amount.

Did you receive any advance child tax credit payments in 2024? I had a similar issue where my 846 amount was about $900 less than I expected. Turns out that they had records showing I received advance payments that needed to be reconciled with my refund.

This exact same thing happened to me last year! My 846 code showed $2,847 but only $1,961 actually deposited. I was panicking for days thinking the IRS made some huge mistake. Turns out I had completely forgotten about an old debt from my college days that went into default. The Treasury Offset Program had taken $886 to pay it off. The notification letter explaining the offset arrived about a week AFTER my refund deposited, which is why I was so confused at first. My advice would be to call the Treasury Offset Program at 800-304-3107 first thing Monday morning. They can tell you immediately if any portion was offset for debt collection. It's usually much faster than trying to reach the IRS directly, and they have access to all the offset information in real time. Also double-check your transcript for any 971 notice codes that might indicate an adjustment was made to your return. Sometimes those are easy to miss when you're focused on the 846 code. Really hoping it's just a bank processing issue and the full amount shows up when it posts!