LdiJ
Senior Member
The bolded is incorrect CJane...at least as far as federal tax is concerned. The IRS will not accept a "blanket" tax intercept. It has to be a specific amount and the IRS will not send the state any more than the specific amount included in the intercept.This information might vary by state, I don't know. So verify with CSE in your state to make sure.
In MY state, which is not YOUR state...
Once the NCP is $500 in arrears, the IRS is automatically notified and an intercept is put in place.
Then entire refund (if any) is then sent to CSE and held for 37 days. During this time, the NCP is notified that their refund is being held and they are given an opportunity to dispute the holding.
Once the 37 days has elapsed, the CURRENT amount of arrears (including anything that has accumulated during the holding period) is sent to the CP and the remainder of the refund, if any, is sent to the NCP.
The intercept notice has to be sent to the IRS by (I believe) November of the previous year though. So if they hit the magic number in December, you're out of luck in most cases.
What may cause the confusion is that if for some reason the intercept ends up being higher than the actual balance due at the time the money is received, then some money will get refunded to the NCP.