We did, unexpectedly and to the tune of 10k. We’re contacting our tax person to see if she has any ideas. It apparently sometimes is a scam where someone deposits the money and calls claiming to be the IRS demanding it back because it was sent in error. Obviously we would contact our bank and the IRS rather than responding to the scammer. It’s possible it’s really from the IRS, but if it’s a scam and we ignore the scammer are they just SOL regarding the money?
I would think that if it was deposited in error, the IRS wouldn’t need to call to have you send it back, they would just pull it back. I would call the bank and see if they can verify the source of the funds.
I’m really surprised you didn’t get a letter from the IRS about this. They are pretty good at sending letters. The letter might be slower than the payment, though.
Do you or your wife have/had a government job? In Ohio people in the OPERS system got shafted out of some social security benefits and in 2024 the law was changed to start giving those benefits to people, and retroactive a year or two. My mom got a hefty deposit from the IRS from that. But this was either exclusive to Ohio, or just a handful of states.
And as far as I know she got a letter before the deposit was made.
Was there any additional code on the deposit information line? Apparently they usually have codes (abbreviations like TAX REF for tax refund, there are others) that give more information.
There was a memo saying MISC PAY.
I just retired from the DC Public School system, which has been another big set of problems. Our tax accountant has advised us to contact both our bank and the IRS.
You sure you didn’t have a Treasury Direct bond or t-bill come due?
Was it exactly $10,000? Was it “IRS TREAS 310” or “APA TREAS 310”?
My tax refunds show up as “IRS TREAS 310” with memo “TAX REF”; my t-bills that come due show up as “APA TREAS 310” with memo “MISC PAY”.
It was “BPD1 TREAS310”.
Did you have a treasury note, treasury bill, or savings bond from before 2012? “BPD” probably refers to the old Bureau of Public Debt: Bureau of the Public Debt - Wikipedia
We had savings bonds given to us by my wife’s aunt, but we cashed them in around 2017.
It wasn’t exactly 10K.
The money might be from the Social Security Fairness Act, if you or your wife worked enough non-government years to collect social security and then your social security was lessened because you have a government pension. That’s what happened for my mom.
The money was sent pretty promptly last spring after the bill was signed in January 2025 but according to quick googling they may still be paying out to people with more complicated cases.
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html
I’m 61, so that wouldn’t apply.
Partial update: After spending the entire morning getting shuttle around, back and forth, in circles I was able to verify that there had indeed been a payment from the US Treasury. The last person I talked to was able to give me a tracing number for the transaction and an email address to write to. I await the reply. Now I know it isn’t a scam, but it may have to be refunded if it was issued in error. We still have no idea what it’s for.
Mystery solved! I retired from DC Public Schools, and it’s part of what they owe me retroactively on my pension. It took them forever to pay anything; it looks like it was the 3 months they owe me from 2025. Still waiting for this year’s.
Nice little windfall. Good to hear that it’s yours. Next thing I suggest doing is contacting DC Public Schools and asking for a statement to see if any taxes were withheld on that payment, or if you will have to pay them at a later date from the proceeds.
Taxes are what I expected. Unfortunately, the amount withheld to keep my health insurance is over twice what it should have been. If this holds, I unfortunately will need to unretire.