IRS cuts tax refund, parents can't pay son's tuition

DEAR HARRY: I am desperately in need of your advice. I was referred to you by my 75-year-old father who reads your column religiously and saves the ones that might affect him. My IRS refund was gobbled up by the repayment of unemployment-comp payments that were mistakenly too high. We were told that my excess unemployment-comp payments had been reduced by $2,000 so they now stand at $4,000. The income-tax refund was originally $9,000 and was supposed to go toward college tuition for our son. We're now in default. We have no idea why the IRS determined that our refund should be reduced from $9,000 to $2,000. How do we straighten this out?

WHAT HARRY SAYS: I cannot believe that the IRS changed the refund without notifying you. So the first step is to call them and find out why they cut you back. You may want to protest the changes they made. I am also puzzled as to how you got such a large overpayment on your unemployment comp and why they did not claim the full overpayment. Make sure you agree with that amount as well. I think you need to be more careful with your record keeping so you can follow what's going on. Remember, government agencies do make mistakes.