What this line means
The sum of all payments and refundable credits: federal tax withheld (lines 25a-25d), estimated tax payments (line 26), earned income credit (line 27), additional child tax credit (line 28), and other payments from Schedule 3. This total is compared against your total tax on line 24 to determine whether you get a refund or owe money.
Does this apply to you?
- You had federal income tax withheld from any income source
- You made quarterly estimated tax payments during the year
- You claimed refundable credits such as the earned income credit
- You applied an overpayment from a prior year to the current year’s estimated taxes
- You made a payment with an extension request (Form 4868)
Easy to overlook
Estimated tax payments from all four quarters Seniors with pension and investment income often make quarterly estimated tax payments. All four quarters (April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year) count toward line 33 — including the January payment made after the tax year ended. Any payment applied from a prior year’s overpayment also goes here. 1 IRS Form 1040-SR Instructions — Line 33
Amount paid with an extension request If you filed Form 4868 for an automatic extension and included a payment, that amount is part of your total payments on line 33. Filers who extended and forgot to include the extension payment when filing their actual return end up with a smaller refund or a balance due that is not real. 2 General filing pattern — omitting estimated tax payments
Watch out for this
Double-counting estimated payments. If you made estimated payments through IRS Direct Pay or EFTPS, confirm the amounts match your records. Some filers enter the total they intended to pay rather than the total actually debited. The IRS credits only payments it received.
Footnotes
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IRS Form 1040-SR Instructions, Line 33. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sr ↩
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IRS Form 4868 Instructions, Payment with Extension. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i4868 ↩