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Refunds: Federal Income Tax (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Refunds” within federal income tax. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 17 (2025), Your Federal Income Tax, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

This section explains how to get ready to complete your tax return and when to report your income and expenses. It also explains how to complete certain sections of the form.

Refunds

When you complete your return, you will determine if you paid more income tax than you owed. If so, you can get a refund of the amount you overpaid or you can choose to apply all or part of the overpayment to your next year’s (2026) estimated tax.

.If you choose to have a 2025 overpayment applied to your 2026 estimated tax, you can’t change your mind and have any of it refunded to you after the due date (without extensions) of your 2025 return..

Follow the Instructions for Form 1040 to complete the entries to claim your refund and/or to apply your overpayment to your 2026 estimated tax.

.If your refund for 2025 is large, you may want to decrease the amount of income tax withheld from your pay in 2026. See chapter 4 for more information..

.Have your refund deposited directly into your checking, savings, health savings, brokerage, or other similar account, including an individual retirement arrangement (IRA). Follow the Instructions for Form 1040 to request direct deposit..

Starting in October 2025, the IRS will generally stop issuing paper checks for federal disbursements, including tax refunds, unless an exception applies. For more information, go to IRS.gov/ModernPayments.

Don’t request a deposit of any part of your refund to an account that isn’t in your name. Don’t allow your tax preparer to deposit any part of your refund into the preparer’s account. The number of direct deposits to a single account or prepaid debit card is limited to three refunds a year. Learn more at IRS.gov/DepositLimit.

IRA.

You can have your refund (or part of it) directly deposited to a traditional IRA or Roth IRA, but not a SIMPLE IRA. You must establish the IRA at a bank or financial institution before you request direct deposit.

Split refunds.

If you choose direct deposit, you may be able to split the refund and have it deposited into more than one account. Complete Form 8888 and attach it to your return.

Overpayment less than one dollar.

If your overpayment is less than $1, you won’t get a refund unless you ask for it in writing.

Refund more or less than expected.

If you receive a refund you aren’t entitled to, or for an overpayment that should have been credited to estimated tax, hold the refund in your account. Check your online account at IRS.gov/Account or contact the IRS.

If you receive more than the refund you claimed, hold the refund in your account until you receive a notice explaining the difference.

If your refund is for less than you claimed, it should be accompanied by a notice explaining the difference.

If you didn’t receive a notice and you have any questions about the amount of your refund, you should wait 2 weeks. If you still haven’t received a notice, check your online account at IRS.gov/Account or contact the IRS.

Offset against debts.

If you are due a refund but haven’t paid certain amounts you owe, all or part of your refund may be used to pay all or part of the past-due amount. This includes past-due federal income tax, other federal debts (such as student loans), state income tax, child and spousal support payments, and state unemployment compensation debt. You will be notified if the refund you claimed has been offset against your debts.

Joint return and injured spouse.

When a joint return is filed and only one spouse owes a past-due amount, the other spouse can be considered an injured spouse. An injured spouse should file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, if both of the following apply and the spouse wants a refund of their share of the overpayment shown on the joint return.

  1. You aren’t legally obligated to pay the past-due amount.

  2. You made and reported tax payments (such as federal income tax withheld from your wages or estimated tax payments), or claimed a refundable tax credit (see the credits listed under Who Should File, earlier).

Note:

If the injured spouse’s residence was in a community property state at any time during the tax year, special rules may apply. See the Instructions for Form 8379.

If you haven’t filed your joint return and you know that your joint refund will be offset, file Form 8379 with your return. You should receive your refund within 14 weeks from the date the paper return is filed or within 11 weeks from the date the return is filed electronically.

If you filed your joint return and your joint refund was offset, file Form 8379 by itself. When filed after offset, it can take up to 8 weeks to receive your refund. Don’t attach the previously filed tax return, but do include copies of all Forms W-2 and W-2G for both spouses and any Forms 1099 that show income tax withheld. The processing of Form 8379 may be delayed if these forms aren’t attached, or if the form is incomplete when filed.

A separate Form 8379 must be filed for each tax year to be considered.

.An injured spouse claim is different from an innocent spouse relief request. An injured spouse uses Form 8379 to request the division of the tax overpayment attributed to each spouse. An innocent spouse uses Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief, to request relief from joint liability for tax, interest, and penalties on a joint return for items of the other spouse (or former spouse) that were incorrectly reported on the joint return. For information on innocent spouses, see Relief from joint responsibility under Filing a Joint Return in chapter 2. .

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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