Paid last year’s federal taxes twice, can I deduct from this year?

Submitted by lookingripe t3_10qadag in personalfinance

Last year (2021 taxes) we owed roughly $400 in Federal taxes. We sent the check to the IRS, and that was that. About a month or so after we sent the check, the IRS sent us an invoice for our federal taxes due. I checked and our check was never deposited. So we paid them online figuring the check was lost. I should’ve cancelled the original check that same day, but completely forgot to. Then literally about a day or so after we paid online, the original check we sent was deposited, so in effect we paid the $400 to the IRS twice. I tried to call a couple times, but was never able to actually reach someone. Everything I read online said that it could take up to two months to receive a check back from the IRS if you overpaid, but I never did.

So my question is, can I somehow factor this overpayment into my taxes when I file for 2022? Or how would I effectively go about receiving this $400 back from the IRS?

Thank you for your help.

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nothlit t1_j6ot7dl wrote

No, there is no way to account for that on this year's taxes. You will have to deal with contacting the IRS directly about last year's overpayment.

Edit: u/meamemg raises a good point that one of your payments last year may have been accidentally applied to the wrong tax year. In that case, if it was applied as a 2022 payment, you can claim that payment on your 2022 tax return. But if both were applied as 2021 payments, then you're back to contacting the IRS to straighten it out.

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meamemg t1_j6otbjj wrote

To start with, check your account at irs.gov to see where the second payment was credited to. If they credited it as a 2022 tax payment, then yes, you'd report on line 26 of this years tax return and get it back now. If they credited it to 2021 then you will probably need to file an amended return for 2021 to claim it, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

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sciguyCO t1_j6ovnx5 wrote

Your payments to the IRS get applied to a specific year's tax bill. You do have a $400 overpayment for 2021, which you should continue to pursue. But that is not something you can factor onto the 2022 return you're doing now.

The only mechanism I'm aware of that's even close to your situation is if you had ended your 2021 return with a refund that you then chose to apply towards your 2022 estimated tax payments. I believe your situation might be able to resolved in a similar way (count that 2021 credit of $400 as a payment for 2022's tax bill), but only after the IRS explicitly acknowledges that you're owed it. Yes, we know you are owed it but paperwork is inevitable and slow. And it feels like it might be too late for that $400 to be applied to your 2022 taxes, and probably isn't something you'd be interested in putting off until 2023's.

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sciguyCO t1_j6oz5js wrote

Replying to lookingripe (#1,682,900)

I wouldn't give up all hope, but it may boil down to effort required vs. how fast you want those dollars back. It does look simple from your side: you owed $X for your 2021 tax bill and paid them a total of $X + $400. That's (hopefully) documented in their system. I feel it's very likely the IRS will catch this themselves eventually. But "eventually" with an agency that seems to be continuously overworked / understaffed can be a while. Especially right now when they're primarily focused on 2022's tax season.

So while that mistake last year won't help with this year's return, it is still your money. And the IRS doesn't generally want to keep money they're not owed.

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