State Tax Withholding Verification

I've never heard of any tax authority asking for pay stubs when W-2s were available.

Are you 100% positive this came from the IRS? It sounds to me like some sort of scam, perhaps an attempt to get your Social Security number.

What strikes me as odd and fishy, is that in all the years of preparing returns I have never had a tax authority (state or federal) send a request for anything relating to a return that had been filed within a week's time (e-filed or paper).

It was the state, Massachusetts Dept of Revenue. And, yes, 100% sure as the document showed the number I declared as having been withheld, along with the request to reply on line, and it was the legit web site. There's also their number to call if any questions, but it didn't seem worth bothering, as I had the documents handy. What would I ask? "Didn't you get the money?" The amount I withheld was high relative to prior years, due to a larger IRA withdrawal, so refund amount is only a few hundred dollars.

For what it's worth, I got the TurboTax confirming email "Your Massachusetts return was accepted" on July 5, and the letter was sent on July 7. Thx for the response.

In responding to Stan, I noted, the return, filed online, was accepted on July 5 and the letter was dated July 7. I'm not "concerned" about anything, just curious, what triggered them. 95%+ of the money (the withheld tax) was from the IRA withdrawal, maybe they lost it?

In my experience bureaucracy runs much slower than that. If your return was accepted on July 5 and the letter was dated July 7, my guess is that the letter was unrelated to your return. Maybe there was something they thought was suspicious or at least out of the ordinary concerning a W-2 they received, and they wanted to see if the pay stubs matched the numbers on what they received.

My curiosity continued, especially with this response. I signed into my state's "check mt refund status, and here we are:

"Your return was received on 5-Jul-2020 and requires additional information for processing. A letter was issued on 7-Jul-2020 detailing the additional information needed. Please log in to MassTaxConnect, or sign up for an account, to view this letter, or allow 7-10 business days to receive the letter by mail."

(Of course, I agree that bureaucracies usually take far longer to do anything, which makes this all the more remarkable. My expected refund is a few hundred dollars, so no rush.)

My ponderings. - The fact that the additional information letter was issued two days after receiving the return indicates (to me anyway) a computer generated letter that I doubt a human ever looked at. I smell a mismatch between MA's 1099/W-2 records and the total amount of MA withholdings claimed on your return.

- Since either the 1099 or W-2 information MA has could be incomplete or incorrect, they asked for documentation on all withholding. Asking for both the W-2 and the year end pay stub lets them determine the correct W-2 withholding in the event the employer didn't issue a W-2 without having to send you a second letter asking for the pay stub.