Mystery Payment labeled \ - What is this unexpected deposit from IRS?

That backslash symbol is often how some banking systems show an unrecognized or generic payment code. Since you already got your tax refund, this could be several things: First, check if it might be a refund from your university - sometimes tuition adjustments or scholarship/grant overpayments get refunded separately. The round number makes me think it might be some kind of stipend or grant payment. Second, it's possible this is a correction to your original tax refund if there was an error in processing. The IRS sometimes sends additional refund amounts if they discover they owe you more after the initial refund was processed. It's less likely to be a stimulus payment at this point, as those programs have ended, and most of those payments were distributed long ago. The fact that your tax residency status is changing in 2025 (not yet changed) also makes this unlikely to be stimulus-related.

After dealing with a similar mystery payment situation last year, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which was incredibly helpful. I uploaded my bank statement showing the deposit and a screenshot of my IRS account, and their AI analyzed them together and identified exactly what type of payment I'd received and why. In my case, it turned out to be a refund adjustment due to a tax law change that affected international students from certain countries. The system explained which specific tax treaty provision applied to my situation - something I'd never have figured out on my own!

I was definitely skeptical about using an AI tool for something as specific as international tax issues, but after reading about taxr.ai here, I decided to give it a try with my mysterious payment (mine showed up as just "IRS TREAS" with no other details). It actually worked! The system identified that my payment was an automatic adjustment related to the Foreign Student Tax Credit that I didn't even know I qualified for. The tool explained that because I'd been in the US under a specific visa type for exactly 4 semesters, a recent tax court ruling had triggered automatic adjustments for people in my situation. Saved me hours of waiting on hold with the IRS just to probably get transferred around to different departments. Definitely recommend for anyone with weird mystery payments!

If you really want to know for sure what this payment is, you need to contact the IRS directly. I've been through this frustration - tried calling for weeks and couldn't get through about a mystery deposit. Then I found a service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. They have this system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you, then calls you when an agent is on the line. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent was able to look up the exact reason for my payment using their internal systems. Turned out mine was an interest payment on a delayed refund that I wasn't expecting.

Ok I need to eat my words here. After being skeptical about Claimyr in my earlier comment, I decided to try it anyway because I was getting nowhere with the IRS on my own about a similar mystery deposit. The service actually worked exactly as advertised. I got a call back in about 20 mins telling me an IRS agent was on the line. The agent was able to see that my mystery payment (which was also weirdly labeled with just symbols) was actually a correction based on a misapplied tax treaty provision. The IRS had recalculated taxes for a bunch of international students from my country based on a review they did of our specific tax treaty. Would've never figured this out on my own, and would've spent days trying to reach someone. Consider me converted from skeptic to believer.

This happened to my roommate last year! She's also an international student from South Korea. In her case, it turned out to be a retroactive application of a tax treaty benefit that she didn't claim on her original return. The IRS actually reviewed a bunch of returns from international students and automatically applied the correct treaty benefits. Check your IRS online account if you have one set up - it should show the reason for the payment in your tax records. Or request a tax transcript which will show all transactions with codes that explain what happened.

Is the payment exactly $1,500? That amount makes me think it might be related to the Recovery Rebate Credit from one of the stimulus payments. International students who became residents for tax purposes could claim these retroactively in some cases.

Check if you have any pending financial aid or scholarships. My university sometimes processes refunds for international students with weird payment descriptions that don't clearly identify the source. One time I got a payment that just showed up as "*" in my bank account, and it turned out to be an emergency grant for international students affected by COVID.