What this line means
The sum of lines 11 through 14 in each column: withholding, estimated payments, earned income credit, and other refundable credits. Column C is the corrected total of all payments and refundable credits. This total is compared against the corrected total tax on line 10 to determine whether you receive a refund or owe additional tax.
Does this apply to you?
- You changed any payment or refundable credit amount on the amendment
- You are verifying total payments before calculating the refund or amount owed
- You made payments after filing the original return that need to be captured
- You are claiming refundable credits for the first time on the amendment
Easy to overlook
Include payments made between the original filing and the amendment If you paid additional tax after your original filing (due to an IRS notice, a balance due on the original return, or a voluntary payment), those amounts are part of your total payments. Include them in the estimated payments line or as additional amounts paid. The IRS credits these to your account and expects the amendment to reflect them. 1 IRS Form 1040-X Instructions — Line 15
Refundable credits are treated as payments The EIC, additional child tax credit, and other refundable credits are included in total payments — not subtracted from total tax. This is different from nonrefundable credits on line 7, which reduce tax directly. Refundable credits flow through the payment side and can create a refund even if you had zero withholding. 2 General filing pattern — omitting payments made after original filing
Watch out for this
Entering a Column A amount that does not match your original return. Column A on line 15 should match the total payments line from your original Form 1040 (line 33) or the most recent prior amendment. If Column A is wrong, Column B (the change) is wrong, and the IRS cannot reconcile the amendment.
Footnotes
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IRS Form 1040-X Instructions, Line 15. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040x ↩
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IRS Form 1040-X Instructions, Payments and Credits. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040x ↩