When I checked where’s my refund just now it updated to this. What does it mean?  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 March 12, 2022 please revisit this site or visit IRS.gov/Refunds, for your revised refund status. Updates to refund status are made no more than once a day.

This basically means BFS (Bureau of Fiscal Service) has identified that you owe money somewhere - could be child support, state taxes, or federal debt. They're gonna take what you owe from your refund before sending you whatever's left. You'll get a notice explaining exactly what was taken and why. Pro tip: you can actually use taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to analyze your transcripts and see if theres any indicators of what kind of offset this might be. It'll show you any past due amounts or liens that could be causing this.

I found a way to solve refund reduced for past debt, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tNx_NeOt4

Hi Jane, Looks like your refund is going to be reduced due to a debt. You should call the Tax Offset for more information. $5 discount for first time callers using Claimyr https://join.claimyr.com/be256b

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This message means the IRS has approved your refund but there's a debt that needs to be paid first - could be child support, state taxes, student loans, or other federal debts. The Bureau of Fiscal Service will automatically deduct what you owe from your refund and send you the remainder (if any). You'll receive a notice in the mail explaining exactly what was taken and the contact info for the agency you owed. The "Where's My Refund" tool will update with your final refund amount after the offset is processed. If you're not sure what debt this could be, you can call the Treasury Offset Program at 1-800-304-3107 to find out which agency is claiming the debt.

Just went through this exact same thing last month! The message means your refund is approved but they're going to take money out for a debt before sending you what's left. In my case it was an old student loan default I forgot about. The Bureau of Fiscal Service handles all the offsets and they'll mail you a detailed notice within a few weeks explaining exactly what was taken and how much. Don't stress too much - you'll still get whatever's left after they deduct the debt. The "Where's My Refund" tool will update with your final amount once everything is processed. If you need to know what the debt is right away, definitely call that Treasury Offset Program number someone mentioned above.