What could possibly be worse than filling out your taxes? Not obtaining your refund. There are millions of people in the United States who are still perplexed about where their checks are.
In this exclusive report for 7NEWS consumers titled “7NEWS Consumer Exclusive: Tax Refund Delays,” we investigated the reasons for the delay and provided recommendations for what you can do to ensure that you receive your refund.
Prior to the pandemic, the IRS normally delivered refunds to people who filed their taxes electronically within three weeks, and people who filed their taxes on paper within roughly six weeks.
Melissa Scruggs, who lives in Cowpens, has been patiently waiting for over a quarter of a year.
Since my tax return was mailed on April 5 and I still haven’t heard anything about it, I’ll just assume that everything went smoothly. When you visit the website, there is never any information to be found there. When you try to phone the IRS, you are always met with a busy signal and no information. “There is no way to communicate with a real human at any time,” Scruggs explained.
7NEWS sought the opinion of IRS Enrolled Agent Dan Thomas with Jackson Hewitt regarding the magnitude of the current delay in comparison to those of prior years. He described the situation as “the worst we’ve ever seen.”
REPORT ON DELAY
Thomas, who has been filing taxes for clients for the past three decades, refers to a recent report published by the National Taxpayer Advocate that indicates that the IRS had a backlog of more than 21 million paper returns as of the end of May.
Thomas expressed his belief that “they admit that the backlog is utterly destroying the IRS.”
The backlog of tax returns has been cut down throughout the course of the summer, but there are still millions of returns that have not been evaluated and refunds that have not been issued.
WHAT RETURNS GET DELAYED?
So, what is it that’s stopping them? To start, there is a shortage of personnel.
But there are other elements that affect your return, such as:
Credit based on one’s earning income
Errors in the reporting of the child tax credit stimulus check
filing taxes via paper forms increases the risk of identity theft and tax fraud due to erroneous or missing information.
Scruggs stated that she was forced to file her taxes manually due to the difficulties she encountered when attempting to claim her dependents. The fact that this woman is a single parent and has three children is the primary motivation for her claim that she required a refund of $3,000 the other day.
Scruggs said that his situation was challenging because he had two jobs.
Darleen Timmerman from Laurens mentioned that she still has not gotten her reimbursement for the year 2020.
It’s aggravating and frustrating at the same time, but what can you do about it? You just sit and wait,” Timmerman added.
According to Thomas, the most important thing you can do to ensure that you will finally receive your return is to monitor the status of your refund with the IRS.
You will be required to input your Social Security Number, as well as your filing status (married filing jointly, head of household, or single), as well as the precise amount of your return.
You might also try phoning the IRS at 800-829-1040; but, just like Scruggs, it’s possible that you won’t get through.
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In most cases, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin paying interest once your return has been delayed for 45 days. And as of the first of July, that percentage went up from 4% to 5%.
However, try not to get too thrilled about it because that interest will be taxable.
If your delayed return is putting a strain on your finances, you may contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service to determine whether or not you are eligible for assistance in this situation.
This is for extremely serious financial problems, such as getting evicted or having your utilities shut off.
WHEN SHOULD YOU EXPECT YOUR REFUND?
Thomas predicted that the game of waiting would most certainly continue for the foreseeable future, particularly for those who filed their taxes on paper.
According to Thomas, “Some of these refunds might not be coming until November or December.”
