IRS Claims Unknown Debt Offset on 2025 Refund - No Notice Received from Bureau of Fiscal Service Yet

Got a message saying my refund has been approved for direct deposit but might be partially or completely reduced to pay a past due obligation, such as child support, another federal agency debt, or state income tax. The thing is, we don't owe child support or any federal agencies. Never had a child support case at all. The exact message I received stated: "Your tax refund has been approved for direct deposit. However, it may be partially or completely reduced to pay a past due obligation, such as child support, another federal agency debt, or state income tax. If so, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), who issues IRS refunds, will send you a notice with the amount of the debt and contact information. The details of the debt are not provided to the IRS. This application will be updated with the refund amount remaining, if any, after the debt is deducted. If your refund is not credited to your account by February 25, 2025, please revisit this site or visit the Refunds page on IRS.gov, for your revised refund status. Updates to refund status are made no more than once a day." I'm really worried because the Bureau of the Fiscal Service is supposed to send this notice with details about what debt they think we owe, but we haven't received anything yet. The message clearly states that the details of whatever debt they think we have aren't provided to the IRS, so I can't even call them to figure out what's going on. The system is supposed to update with whatever refund amount remains after the supposed debt is deducted. According to the message, if our refund isn't credited by February 25, 2025, we need to revisit the site or check the Refunds page on IRS.gov for revised refund status information. They specifically mention they only update the refund status once per day. Has anyone else dealt with this situation? I'm really concerned since we know we don't owe anything - no child support, no federal agency debts that we're aware of. Maybe it's state income tax? But we've always been current on our taxes. This message is making me incredibly nervous about what's going on with our refund and whether we'll get any of it.

0 coins

13 comments

TillyCombatwarrior

This is a standard Treasury Offset Program (TOP) notice from the Bureau of Fiscal Service, indicating your refund has been approved but flagged for potential offset review. The key date to note is February 25, 2025 - that's your deadline for receiving the refund before needing to take additional action. The notice is actually a preliminary warning system rather than confirmation of an actual offset. BFS runs all approved refunds through their database to check for various types of debt, including: - Child support arrears - Federal agency debts - State tax obligations Important details to note: 1. The IRS doesn't have access to debt details - this is handled entirely by BFS 2. You should receive a separate notice from BFS if they actually find any debts 3. The system only updates once per day, so checking multiple times daily won't show new information If you're confident you don't owe any debts, your refund will likely process normally. However, it's worth checking your credit report and state tax records to ensure there aren't any unknown issues. Keep monitoring your bank account and watch for any BFS notices in the mail.

0 coins

- 1M