Filed my taxes but forgot a W-2, now my 1040-X amendment says I owe $500!

You can absolutely wait until you receive your original refund before filing the amendment. The IRS generally gives you up to 3 years from the original filing date to submit amendments, so you're not going to be penalized for waiting a few weeks. That said, you should be aware that interest on what you owe starts accruing from the original due date of the return (normally April 15th). The interest rate isn't huge, but it does compound daily. There may also be a failure-to-pay penalty if you go beyond the due date without paying what you owe. My suggestion would be to wait for your original refund (which should take 2-3 weeks for direct deposit), then immediately file your amendment and pay the $700 you owe. This approach is perfectly legitimate and many taxpayers handle amendments this way.

After going through a similar situation last year, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which saved me so much stress with my amendment. I had forgotten a 1099 and was freaking out about owing money after my refund had already been processed. Their document analysis caught that I had actually overpaid on some other items which partially offset what I owed. The tool analyzes all your tax documents together and helps identify potential offsetting deductions or credits you might have missed. I uploaded my documents including the forgotten W-2 and my draft amendment, and it flagged that I could claim a higher education credit I had overlooked that reduced my payment by about 40%.

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai for my own amendment situation. Honestly, it was way better than I expected! I had a similar situation with a forgotten 1099-INT from an account I rarely check. The analysis found that I had actually overpaid on my self-employment taxes because I had incorrectly calculated my business mileage. It identified about $300 in additional deductions I qualified for, which brought what I owed down to a much more manageable amount. The whole process took maybe 30 minutes and the recommendations were super clear - not the usual tax jargon that makes my eyes glaze over. Definitely helped reduce the financial hit from my amendment. Now I'm just waiting for my original refund before submitting everything.

If you're stressed about getting your original refund quickly to pay the amendment, you might want to try Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in the exact same boat last year - owed about $900 on an amendment but needed my refund first, and my refund was taking FOREVER. I couldn't get through to the IRS after like 12 attempts, then found this service that actually gets you through to an IRS agent. There's a demo video at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c showing how it works. I was skeptical but desperate because my refund had been "processing" for 6 weeks with no update. Got through to the IRS in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold for 3+ hours, and the agent was able to release my refund that had been stuck in processing.

I'm actually coming back to say I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it as BS, my refund still hadn't arrived after 8 weeks and I was desperate, so I decided to try it as a last resort. It genuinely works exactly as described. The system called the IRS, navigated all the menus, waited on hold (about 2 hours in my case), and then connected me once a human actually answered. The IRS agent told me my refund had been flagged for a manual review but wasn't actually being actively worked on. She was able to complete the review while I was on the phone and release the refund. Got my money 5 days later, which meant I could file my amendment without having to come up with the cash out of pocket. I'm still shocked this actually worked after being so skeptical.

One thing I learned the hard way with amendments - if you wait too long after discovering an error, the IRS can technically consider it "willful neglect" which carries much higher penalties. I'm not saying this to scare you, but just something to be aware of. In your case, waiting a few weeks for your refund is fine, but I wouldn't wait months. The official rule is that you should file an amendment "promptly after discovering the error" - which isn't very specific, I know. Generally, within 30-60 days of discovering the error keeps you in the clear.

I had almost the identical situation last year, but I went ahead and e-filed the amendment right away before getting my refund. Big mistake! The original refund and the amount I owed from the amendment got caught in this weird processing limbo where they wouldn't offset each other automatically. I ended up with the IRS sending me the full original refund, then a separate bill for what I owed plus a small penalty because the system didn't recognize I was trying to fix my own mistake proactively. Took almost 6 months and multiple calls to straighten out.