Received wrong amount on my tax refund - missing $270

This happens more often than you'd think. The IRS likely applied part of your refund to another debt you might have, like past-due federal taxes, state income taxes, child support, or even federal student loans. It's called a "tax refund offset." Check your mail over the next couple weeks - the IRS should send you a notice explaining exactly why your refund was reduced. The notice is called a "Notice of Offset" and breaks down where that money went. If you want more immediate answers, you can call the Treasury Offset Program at 800-304-3107. You'll need to provide your Social Security number, and they can tell you if your refund was reduced because of an offset and which agency received the money.

I went through something similar last year and spent HOURS trying to get through to the IRS. Ended up finding this online tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that saved me so much headache. I uploaded my transcript and tax info and it actually identified that the IRS had made a calculation error on my refund. It highlighted exactly where the discrepancy was in my documents and gave me a detailed explanation of what happened. The tool breaks down your tax transcript with AI and explains everything in plain English - like having a tax pro look at your documents instantly. They even created a custom letter I could send to the IRS to fix the issue. Worth checking out if you're trying to figure out where your missing money went.

I'm actually coming back to say I tried taxr.ai after posting my skeptical comment. Wow - it worked amazingly well for my situation! I uploaded my transcript and it immediately showed that the state had applied part of my refund to an estimated tax payment for next year (which I didn't request). The explanation was super clear and even showed the exact line on my transcript where the issue appeared. The best part was the customized letter they generated for me to send to my state tax agency. I sent it last week and just got a response that they're processing a supplemental refund for the missing amount. Saved me so much time trying to decipher tax codes and figure out what happened.

If you're still trying to contact the IRS directly about this, good luck getting through on their phone lines. After trying for literally WEEKS last year about a similar refund issue, I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual IRS agent in under 45 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they use technology to navigate the IRS phone tree and hold for you, then call you when an actual human agent is on the line. Saved me from what would have been hours of hold music and frustration. My issue was that they had applied part of my refund to an old debt I didn't even know about.

OK I feel pretty stupid now but I need to update my comment. I was super skeptical about Claimyr so I decided to test it out myself just to prove it was BS. Well, I was completely wrong. I got a call back in about 35 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent explained that part of my refund (different situation than OP but I had a similar issue last year) had been held back because of a discrepancy between what my employer reported on my W-2 and what I entered on my return. Was able to clear it up in one call instead of waiting for the letter to arrive weeks later. I'm honestly shocked this service exists and actually works. Would have saved me so much frustration if I'd known about it sooner.

Have you checked if you had any fees deducted for tax prep? Sometimes if you choose to pay your filing fees from your refund instead of upfront, they take the fees out of your refund amount. Check your TurboTax receipt/confirmation and see if that accounts for the difference.

This happened to me last year! In my case it was because I had defaulted on a federal student loan years ago that I completely forgot about. The frustrating part was that the notice explaining the offset arrived almost 3 weeks AFTER my reduced refund hit my account. If you check your transcript, look for a code 898 - that's the code for an offset. But honestly, calling is probably faster if you can get through to someone.