Tax refund wrong? Why, what to do

May 11, 2011

Most folks get a refund from Uncle Sam each year. They either like the forced savings (despite the advice of tax and financial advisers) or the tax cash was a nice one-year surprise.

But occasionally, the check that shows up in your snail mail box or is directly deposited in your bank account is wrong.

When this happens, it tends to be less than you expected.

However, now and then, a refund amount is larger than what you figured on your 1040. That happened to me one year.

Regardless of whether your actual, final refund is too large or too small, the difference is a bit disconcerting.

Today's Weekly Tax Tip looks at the unexpected refund amount issue, examining why it usually happens (can you say offsets and/or filing mistakes?) and what you can do.

Tax tip schedule: Remember, a new tip will be posted in the upper right corner of the ol' blog's home page each Wednesday through the end of the year.

And if you missed the earlier weekly tips, be sure to check out the Weekly Tax Tip page.

Related posts:

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