U.S. Department of the Treasury | USAGov (2024)

FAQs

Why did I receive mail from the US Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service? ›

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service in the Department of the Treasury collects overdue (delinquent) nontax debt for other federal agencies. If you owe money to a federal agency and you did not pay it on time, you have a delinquent debt. You will receive a letter first from the agency to whom you owe the debt.

If we take money from a federal payment to pay an overdue debt that you owe, you will get a letter notifying you of the offset.

Find out why you received a check from the government

You can look up the authorizing agency directly and contact them to find out why they sent the payment. If you do not know which agency authorized the payment, call the Bureau of the Fiscal Service Call Center at 1-855-868-0151.

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Over the past eleven weeks, Treasury has sent out nearly 83 million checks for more than $35 billion in tax relief. Treasury will continue to send out checks as extensions or late-filed returns are processed.

Contacts for the Public

To obtain information on whether your tax refund or federal payment was reduced or offset, you can call 800-304-3107 and select option 1 to hear an automated message of the amount, date and creditor agency or agencies you owe the debt to.

If you received a check or EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) payment from Treasury and don't know why it was sent to you, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service Call Center can help. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service Call Center can be reached by calling 1-855-868-0151, Option 2.

The Department of the Treasury operates and maintains systems that are critical to the nation's financial infrastructure, such as the production of coin and currency, the disbursem*nt of payments to the American public, revenue collection, and the borrowing of funds necessary to run the federal government.

The IRS is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury and one of the world's most efficient tax administrators. In fiscal year 2020, the IRS collected almost $3.5 trillion in revenue and processed more than 240 million tax returns. The IRS spent just 35 cents for each $100 it collected in FY 2020.

Most IRS letters and notices are about federal tax returns or tax accounts. Each notice deals with a specific issue and includes any steps the taxpayer needs to take. A notice may reference changes to a taxpayer's account, taxes owed, a payment request or a specific issue on a tax return.

All U.S. Treasury checks are printed on watermarked paper. When held up to the light, the watermark reads “U.S. Treasury” from both the front and the back. Any check should be suspected as counterfeit if the check has no watermark, or the watermark is visible without holding the check up to light.

What does US Treasury investigate? ›

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) investigates allegations of extortion, bribery, theft, taxpayer abuses, false statements, financial fraud, and contract fraud by IRS employees.

It sounds like your refund was offset by the Bureau of Fiscal Services for a debt you owed--either back taxes, child support or delinquent student loans. The IRS will send you a letter of explanation in several weeks.

The watermark reads “U.S. TREASURY” and can be seen from both the front and back of the check when held up to a light. The watermark is light and cannot be reproduced by a copier. All U.S. Treasury checks have the watermark and any check not having the watermark should be suspected as being counterfeit or copied.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Some people received refund checks from the IRS even though they were told they owed them money. Is it simply just a nice surprise or a mistake? One tax expert says it could be the result of an error in completing the return, so the IRS corrected it and sent a refund.

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), which is part of the Treasury Department, initiates refund offsets to outstanding federal agency debts or child support, state income tax obligations and unemployment compensation debts. These offsets are referred to as Treasury Offset Program (TOP) offsets.

The Office of Fiscal Service helps formulate policy and develop systems for the collection, disbursem*nt, management and security of public monies in the United States and abroad, and related government-wide accounting and reporting for those funds.

Role of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, sends most checks to state child support agencies.