There are 35 million people still waiting for tax refunds they filed for months ago. This year, there are quite a few reasons why they might be more than a tad bit late.
For one, employees working for the IRS can’t get into the facilities they way they could before a pandemic and social distancing happened.
On top of tax refunds, this year is also rolling out stimulus checks, unemployment refunds, and child tax credits. All of these things need to be processed through the IRS in a certain timeframe as well.
The unemployment refunds are for people who filed before the American Rescue Plan was passed, making them way overdue.
Most people’s refunds are over $1,600 this year and may take longer if they filed Recovery Rebate Credit forms with errors.
Identity theft or fraud can also impact the speed of getting a refund.
Forms that used 2019’s income for Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit may cause a delay.
Injured Spouse Claims can take up to 14 weeks to be fully processed.
Usually if there is an issue the IRS will try to fix it before taking too long, but if it’s a major delay they will notify the filer.
If more information is needed to complete the taxes return a letter is sent to the filer.
Ways people can check the status of their refund is by using the IRS2Go app on their phone or the Where’s My Refund? IRS tool on their website.
Users are notified of what stage of the process their refunds are in and it is updated every 24 hours.
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