I received a several hundred dollar refund from IRS a few days ago, much to my surprise. I never get refunds from IRS; usually, I write them a check for four or five figures each year. The wexplanation arrived a few days later, and it makes me wonder if TurboTax screwed up (again). The refund was for the Individual Shared Responsibility payment, which is the tax for not having health insurance. It appears that either TurboTax did not ask me the right questions, or it miscomputed my taxes and had me pay this penalty when I did not owe it. If you use TurboTax, you might want to look through your return and see if you inadvertantlly paid this penalty.
Another surprise a few days before was a warning from IRS that seemed to say that someon else had filed a tax return with my Social Security #, and encouraging me took into identity theft protection. I have done so. But it strikes me that if someone filed a tax return with my SSN to get a refund they did not deserve they would have been sorely disappointed.
The IRS cuts the refund check before they do the matching so people will just make up the numbers and get the refund even if you aren't due one. Look at line 61 on page 2 of your 1040. If you had health insurance all year, that should be 0
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