I don’t think that is fair to assume. They wouldn’t “adjust” it to the penny.
According to this, the IRS is making automatic “adjustments” for returns with a recovery rebate credit. My return fell into that category. I had a kid in 2019. My first 2020 “stimulus” came before I filed my 2019 tax return, so I didn’t get any money for that child. The “adjustment” was almost surely interest on the $500 I didn’t get for him in early 2020.
Technically, we’re both right, it was an adjustment… for interest.
The tax tables are whole numbers. When would the IRS calculate to the penny an adjustment to a return that has used only whole numbers? I’m a tax preparer and I haven’t personally seen it. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I’m wondering when they would on a return that is using whole numbers.
That is an interesting question - all the numbers may be to the penny, but the tax due/refund should only adjust by even dollars. To get a refund adjustment of pennies, it’d have to be a change to your prepayments/withholdings or credits.
Several years ago, I paid estimated tax with $500 prepaid GCs through the payment processors which charged fees like $2.55 and $2.58, so the actual payments to IRS had pennies. My return submitted through TurboTax showed refund in whole dollars, but the actual refund had pennies because IRS used the actual estimated payments (with pennies) instead of rounding them.
