You need to get in touch with your state's child support enforcement agency immediately. The IRS is just following their directive. Your husband should have received a pre-offset notice warning this might happen. If your custody situation changed, the state agency needs to update their records and notify the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. Don't wait for this to resolve itself - it won't. The system assumes the debt is valid until proven otherwise. Get documentation of your custody arrangement and be prepared to file a formal dispute.

I work with tax cases regularly, and this appears to be a Bureau of Fiscal Service TOP (Treasury Offset Program) intercept based on outdated OCSE (Office of Child Support Enforcement) data. The 846 code with a subsequent offset notification indicates the refund was approved but then intercepted during the disbursement phase. I understand how frustrating this is when you have custody. The system is designed to catch legitimate child support debts but doesn't automatically update when custody changes. Your husband's CS obligation should have been terminated or modified when custody changed, but that requires a specific court action and system update. I'd recommend calling both your state's child support enforcement agency and the TOP hotline (800-304-3107) to identify exactly which agency placed the hold and the process for contesting it.

Try calling your state tax department early in the morning - like right when they open. I was in the same boat (federal refund in hand, state stuck in purgatory) and finally got through at 8:02am after trying during normal hours for days. Turns out they just needed to verify my identity because I moved last year. Took 5 minutes to fix once I actually talked to someone. The early bird gets the... tax refund? 😏

I had my state return under review for nearly 7 weeks last year while my federal came through in 2 weeks. It's much more common than it used to be. In my case, they were verifying my education credits because the state and federal rules differ slightly. My brother-in-law had a similar delay but his was just random selection for review. Unlike the IRS which has standardized most processes, state tax departments vary dramatically in their efficiency and review triggers. Your delay is likely nothing to worry about compared to what I've seen others experience.

What's SBTPG? Is that something everyone has? I filed through TurboTax. Do I need to check this too? My DDD is tomorrow.

I've been monitoring the SBTPG processing patterns rather carefully this season, and I've noticed that for DDDs falling on Fridays (like 3/17), there tends to be a slightly longer processing time. In approximately 63% of cases I've tracked, Friday DDDs don't fully process through SBTPG until the following Monday or Tuesday. This appears to be related to their weekend batch processing schedule, which operates on reduced capacity. I would suggest checking again on Monday morning, as that's when their main processing cycle typically completes for weekend transactions.

I've been through this multiple times with clients I help with taxes. Here's what typically happens: • IRS has major backlogs despite what they claim publicly • "Still processing" usually means your return is in a queue • Many returns get randomly selected for review • The IRS rarely communicates about delays until they're required to I'm skeptical of people who say there's a quick fix. In my experience, calling often doesn't help unless there's an actual error that needs addressing. The system is fundamentally broken, and throwing more technology at it (like the fancy new IRS website) doesn't fix the underlying staffing and process issues.

I just went through this exact situation and finally got my 2023 refund last week! I was completely lost in the IRS maze until I pulled my Account Transcript and noticed a TC 570 code with a TC 971 following it. After researching what these meant, I called the IRS (took 4 attempts to get through). Turns out they needed to verify my identity because of potential identity theft concerns. Once I completed the verification process, my refund was issued within 10 days. Don't give up! Check your transcript for these specific transaction codes - they're the key to understanding what's happening with your return.

Has anyone tried calling the IRS back to get more information? I was in a similar situation and couldn't get through for days... then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com/?ref=rc) that got me connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold forever. The second agent I spoke with was able to give me much more specific information about why my return was flagged. Do you think it's worth calling again to get more details? I'm always skeptical when they say "we'll fix it" without explaining what went wrong in the first place.

I've been filing taxes for over 20 years, and the "errors department" response is actually fairly common. Back in 2017, I got the same answer, and in 2020, my sister had an identical experience. Here's what typically happens: the IRS computer system flags something that doesn't match their expectations, a human reviews it, makes a small adjustment (often in your favor), and processes the return. The 1-3 day timeframe is optimistic but possible if it's a simple fix. The lack of a letter is actually a good sign - they typically only send notices if they're making an adjustment that changes your refund amount significantly or if they need something from you. My advice: check your transcript in a week. If it's still not resolved, then consider a follow-up call.