Denver Woman Surprised With $8,000 Tax Bill After Expecting Refund

DENVER (CBS4)- Isadora Bielsky typically gets a tax refund, but not this year. In fact, she is one of thousands of Americans who got a big surprise when filing taxes.

"I plugged it all in and at first I thought oh my goodness we're getting $8,000 back and then I realized it was the wrong color; so, I went back in and checked everything and I started to cry," she told CBS News.

H&R Block Tax Advisor Gerald Spivey calls this is an extreme case, but a common complaint.

"I thought we had a tax reform, I thought we were going to save in taxes and now I'm getting less money back than this year," he said.

Unless you changed your withholding, tax reform added a little bit of money to most paychecks last year.

"Although a lot of them didn't notice it that much, but it does make a big difference at the end of the year when they got that tax refund, that shrunk a bit, so we are getting some surprises there."

The Internal Revenue Service says last year refunds averaged around $2,100 dollars, so far this year, the number is around $1,900.

"I believe in paying taxes, but you can't expect average Americans who have bills to pay and things they want to do. To save money that they don't know they're going to need," said Bielsky.

So what do you do if you weren't planning on settling a debt with the government?

"Once you file the return, that's the key, once you file the return they are happy to work with you and you can contact them with installment agreements and some kind of payoff situation," said Spivey.