What is this surprise deposit before my tax refund date? IRS related?

This sounds like what's called an "offset" deposit or sometimes a test transaction. The IRS sometimes sends a small deposit to verify your bank account information before sending the full refund. It's actually a good sign that your full refund is indeed coming soon! The fact that your scheduled refund date is tomorrow makes this very likely to be related. The IRS system often processes these verification deposits 1-2 days before the actual refund is sent. You should still receive your full refund amount tomorrow as scheduled. If you filed for direct deposit with a tax preparation service that takes their fees from your refund, this could also be a portion of your refund after their fees were taken out, especially if you used a bank product like a refund transfer.

I had the exact same thing happen to me this year and was super confused at first! After doing some digging, I found that taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) has a tool that can actually analyze your tax transcripts and tell you exactly what's happening with these weird deposits. I was panicking thinking something was wrong with my refund but their system explained that it was just an advance processing of part of my refund and showed when the rest would come. They analyze all those cryptic IRS codes that show up on your transcript and translate them into normal human language.

Update: Just wanted to let everyone know I tried the taxr.ai thing mentioned above and it was actually super helpful! It showed me that my weird deposit was something called a "split refund" where they process part of your refund early. The tool predicted my main refund would come 2 days after the small deposit, and that's exactly what happened. Saved me from calling the IRS and waiting on hold for hours. The transcript analysis explained everything that was happening with my account.

If you still don't get your full refund tomorrow, don't waste time with the IRS phone line - I spent 3 HOURS on hold last week trying to figure out a similar issue. Finally discovered Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) which got me through to an actual IRS agent in like 20 minutes. They have this system that navigates all the IRS phone menus and holds your place in line, then calls you when an agent is about to pick up. Check out how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was super skeptical at first but was desperate after days of busy signals and disconnects. The agent I talked to explained that sometimes these small deposits are split from your main refund for various reasons, and confirmed my full amount was still coming.

Alright I need to apologize - I was the skeptical one about that Claimyr service but I tried it this morning after getting absolutely nowhere with the IRS for 2 weeks straight. It actually worked exactly as described! Got a call back in about 45 minutes and talked to a real IRS person who explained my refund situation. Apparently I had a small offset happen that took part of my refund which explained the weird deposit amount. Definitely worth it just for the amount of time it saved me.

This happened to me back in 2022. It turned out it was from my tax preparation software (TurboTax in my case). I had chosen to have their fee taken out of my refund, so they sent the remainder in two separate transactions for some reason. Check if you paid for tax prep with your refund - might explain it!

One thing no one has mentioned - if you owe any federal or state debts (like old student loans, child support, etc), the IRS can take part of your refund to pay those. It's called a "Treasury offset" and they sometimes send the remaining amount in weird partial payments. Might be worth checking if you have any outstanding federal debts?