what is a tax refund offset 
if your tax refund is offset the federal government has seized a portion of your refund to put towards a state or federal debt you owe unpaid child support is an example 2the bottom lineif the initial investment was a purchase a sale in the same amount is made to neutralize the position to offset an initial sale a purchase is made to neutralize the position with futures related to stocks investors may use hedging to assume an opposing position to manage the risk associated with the futures contract for example if you wanted to offset a long position in a stock you could short sell an identical number of shares 