If you used TurboTax to make your estimated payments last year, you should be able to log in to your account and see your payment history. Go to tax.intuit.com and sign in, then look for your payment history or last year's return.

Exactly this! I used to prepare taxes professionally. We'd sometimes put zero on extensions if we weren't sure what the final numbers would be. The important thing is having the extension filed and accepted, which gives you the extra time. The payment part is separate, and putting incorrect estimates doesn't invalidate your extension.

The deposit definitely says "IRS TREAS TAX REF" so I'm pretty sure it's from the original return. My amended return actually shows we owe about $1,200 because of the 401k withdrawal and penalty. So I'm guessing that's what we'll have to pay back? I'm keeping the whole refund untouched in a separate account just to be safe. Thanks for the advice!

That's exactly right - the $1,200 is what you'd need to repay, not the entire original refund. You're doing the right thing by keeping the funds separate until everything is resolved. The IRS will eventually send you a notice after processing your amended return. It might take several months, but you'll receive clear instructions on how to pay the difference. Since you're expecting this and planning for it, you're in a much better position than most people who get surprised by these notices.

In my experience, it took about 5 months for them to process my amended return and send a notice for the difference. And yes, they charged interest from the date of the original refund, not from when they discovered the issue. The interest wasn't huge though - like 3-4% annually.

Thanks for mentioning this! I actually realized I don't even need to worry about this line. I was going through the form line by line and got stuck on this one, but I don't use fuel for any of those special purposes. I was making things way more complicated than they needed to be! I'll check out that Interactive Tax Assistant for some of my other questions though - didn't know that existed.

No problem! That's actually super common - people trying to fill out every line whether it applies to them or not. The tax forms can be intimidating so it's a natural reaction. The Interactive Tax Assistant is at irs.gov/help/ita - it's not perfect but it can help with the basics. For most people, quite a few lines on the various schedules will be blank, and that's completely fine. Good luck with finishing your return!

Totally agree. I think they're trying to make things "simpler" but end up making it worse. Last year I could at least find everything in one place, now it seems like everything references some other form or publication. I ended up just using tax software this year because I couldn't deal with the instructions anymore.

This is actually a common misconception. Married Filing Separately almost always results in a higher tax bill than Married Filing Jointly. MFS has higher tax rates, lower thresholds for higher brackets, disqualifies you from many credits and deductions (like student loan interest, EIC, education credits), and prevents you from taking the standard deduction if your spouse itemizes. The only time MFS makes sense is in very specific situations like income-based student loan repayment, one spouse having huge medical expenses, or liability protection concerns.

The IRS Withholding Estimator is actually pretty good for this exact situation. My spouse and I used it after getting hit with a surprise tax bill our first year married. You enter all your income sources and it tells you exactly what to put on your W-4s. Definitely saved us from another surprise the following year.

Thanks for confirming! I found it confusing at first but once I put in all our info, the recommendations were spot on. We went from owing $3,200 our first year married to getting a small refund the next year after using the estimator to adjust our withholding. Definitely worth the time to fill it out properly.

Omg that sounds awful! Did you have to pay any penalties for having two plans? How did you even figure out you had duplicate plans?

I only realized I had two plans when I saw double payments coming out of my account! I called the IRS (waited forever) and they explained what happened. Fortunately, they waived penalties since it was clearly a misunderstanding, but they counted the extra payment toward my principal. The most frustrating part was that it took almost 3 months to get everything straightened out. The IRS had to manually cancel one of the plans and recalculate everything. Definitely check first before creating a new plan!

I've used both TurboTax and H&R Block over the years. In my experience, H&R Block actually shows the payment plan details in your account after filing, which TurboTax doesn't seem to do. The downside is that H&R Block's interface is clunkier overall. But for payment plan visibility, they're definitely better.