Us department of treasury bureau of fiscal service check

Role of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service
How to read a U.S. Treasury check
What if the check should not have been sent to your State Disbursement Unit (SDU)?
What if you cannot identify a U.S. Treasury check?

Role of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service

While federal agencies send most child support payments electronically, there are still some cases when checks are issued to child support agencies. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, sends most checks to state child support agencies.

Table of Contents Show

Table of Contents
Role of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service
Payment Management Call Center
How to read a U.S. Treasury check
What if the check should not have been sent to your State Disbursement Unit (SDU)?
What if you cannot identify a U.S. Treasury check?
Injured Spouse Claim
Additional Information
What is the US Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service?
How do you find out why I got a check from the US Treasury?

The Kansas City Financial Center, one of two financial centers, processes all of Treasury-disbursed payments, both domestic and international, including printing and mailing responsibilities. Disbursement of paper checks is split between the Kansas City Center and its sister site, the Philadelphia Financial Center.

Payment Management Call Center

The Payment Management Call Center can answer questions about Treasury-sponsored programs and Treasury-disbursed payments.

Call Center: 855-868-0151 or 816-414-2100
Office Symbol: 310
E-mail:

How to read a U.S. Treasury check

The image above will help you identify specific information printed on the Treasury check. Find the corresponding number or letter below.

Information contained on a U.S. Treasury check:

1 = Issue Date
2 = Payee Name
3 = Fiscal Service Financial Center
4 = Issue Type
5 = Check Symbol
6 = Check Serial Number
7 = Issue Amount

Information on the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) line of a U.S. Treasury check:

A = Check Symbol
B = Check Digit
C = Routing Number unique to U.S. Treasury checks
D = Check Serial Number
E = Check Digit
F = Federal Agency Code
G = Issue Date (MM/YY)
H = Paid Amount, if the financial institution encodes the amount

What if the check should not have been sent to your State Disbursement Unit (SDU)?

If you are certain that your SDU should not receive the payment, contact the Payment Management Call Center to determine which federal agency authorized the payment and arrange for its return. For identification purposes, the city and state of the Financial Center is printed on the top center of the check. A U.S. Treasury check, with the exception of a check returned from the Social Security Administration (SSA), will have the return address of the Financial Center on the envelope.

If your SDU needs to return a payment to the SSA by paper check, please use the following procedure:

Make the check payable to the Social Security Administration (not the U.S. Treasury)
Include the noncustodial parent/SSA beneficiary’s SSN on the check
Mail the check to the SSA:
Mid-Atlantic Program Service Center
PO Box 3430
Philadelphia, PA 19122

What if you cannot identify a U.S. Treasury check?

There are several reasons why you cannot identify a Treasury check, including:

Non-IV-D or private orders sent by county clerks of court may not include necessary information, such as an SSN, to identify the payment in your automated system and SDU.
You did not provide the unique case/order identifier to the federal agency.
The U.S. Treasury check does not include the county identifier (for example, FIPS code).

For information to match the U.S. Treasury check payment with the child support case, contact the Payment Management Call Center. The customer liaison will ask for the check number and check symbol as well as other payment information, such as the date of payment, amount, and account number (for example, the noncustodial parent's SSN). The liaison can provide a point of contact to the issuing federal payment agency that withheld the child support payment and can help explain the various codes on the face of the check.

Contact the noncustodial parent's federal payroll agency or the agency where they work for information on the underlying income withholding order.

The Department of Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) issues IRS tax refunds and Congress authorizes BFS to conduct the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). Through the TOP program, BFS may reduce your refund (overpayment) and offset it to pay:

Past-due child support;
Federal agency non-tax debts;
State income tax obligations; or
Certain unemployment compensation debts owed to a state (generally, these are debts for (1) compensation paid due to fraud, or (2) contributions owing to a state fund that weren't paid).

You can contact the agency with which you have a debt to determine if your debt was submitted for a tax refund offset. You may call BFS's TOP call center at the number below for an agency address and phone number. If your debt meets submission criteria for offset, BFS will reduce your refund as needed to pay off the debt you owe to the agency. Any portion of your remaining refund after offset is issued in a check or direct deposited as originally requested on the return.

BFS will send you a notice if an offset occurs. The notice will reflect the original refund amount, your offset amount, the agency receiving the payment, and the address and telephone number of the agency. BFS will notify the IRS of the amount taken from your refund once your refund date has passed. You should contact the agency shown on the notice if you believe you don't owe the debt or if you're disputing the amount taken from your refund. Contact the IRS only if your original refund amount shown on the BFS offset notice differs from the refund amount shown on your tax return. If you don't receive a notice, contact the BFS's TOP call center at 800-304-3107 (or TTY/TDD 800-877-8339), Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST.

Injured Spouse Claim

If you filed a joint return and you're not responsible for your spouse's debt, you're entitled to request your portion of the refund back from the IRS. You may file a claim for this amount by filing Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation.

You may file Form 8379 in any of the following ways:

With your original joint tax return (Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR),
With your amended joint tax return (Form 1040-X), or
By itself after you receive notification of an offset.

When filing a Form 8379 with your joint return by mail or with an amended return, write "Injured Spouse" in the top left corner of the first page of the joint return.

The IRS can process your Form 8379 before an offset occurs. If you file Form 8379 with your original return, it may take 11 weeks to process an electronically-filed return or 14 weeks if you filed a paper return. If you file the Form 8379 by itself after a joint return has been processed, then processing will take about 8 weeks. To avoid delays, be sure to follow the Instructions for Form 8379.PDF

When filing Form 8379 by itself, you must show both spouses' taxpayer identification numbers in the same order as they appeared on your joint income tax return. You, the injured spouse, must sign the form. Follow the instructions on Form 8379 carefully and be sure to attach the required Forms W-2 and W-2G for both spouses and any Forms 1099 showing federal income tax withholding to avoid delays. Don't attach the previously filed joint tax return. Send Form 8379 to the Service Center where you filed your original return and allow at least 8 weeks for the IRS to process your request. The IRS will compute the injured spouse's share of the joint refund. If you lived in a community property state during the tax year, the IRS will divide the joint refund based upon state community property law. Not all debts are subject to a tax refund offset. To determine whether an offset will occur on a debt owed (other than federal tax), contact BFS's TOP call center at 800-304-3107 (800-877-8339 for TTY/TDD help).

Additional Information

Can I or My Spouse Claim Part of a Refund Being Applied Toward a Debt Owed by the Other Spouse?

What is the US Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service?

At the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, we collect revenue, delinquent debt, and disburse funds to millions of Americans ensuring their timely receipt of benefit payments. Our easy-to-set-up direct deposit programs streamline the government benefit payment process.

How do you find out why I got a check from the US Treasury?

If you received a check or EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) payment from Treasury and do not know why it was sent to you, the regional financial center (RFC) that sent the payment can provide more information. To determine which RFC to contact, select the type of payment and follow the instructions below.