Is Your U.S. Tax Refund Taking Longer To Receive?

[jeffandgop]

I file by the end of January electronically every year. Normally I see my refund deposited in my account no later than 4 weeks after filing. It's now been 5 weeks and no refund. The IRS did accept the return the day after I transmitted the return. Their "Track My Refund" website continue to say "Being processed" with no forecasted date to complete the refund.

 

Anyone else seeing delays or not?

Edited March 7, 2019 by metisdead
ALL CAPS removed from topic title.

[Pib]

Haven't even filed my yet since I owe the a little money, but have your checked the IRS Refund Status page or used their new refund status app...a status should be there....see below

 

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp

 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901303-what-if-my-irs-refund-is-taking-longer-than-21-days

[jeffandgop]

18 minutes ago, Pib said:

Haven't even filed my yet since I owe the a little money, but have your checked the IRS Refund Status page or used their new refund status app...a status should be there....see below

 

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp

 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901303-what-if-my-irs-refund-is-taking-longer-than-21-days

Hi Pib- I have been doing so as I wrote originally...."Their "Track My Refund" website continue to say "Being processed" with no forecasted date to complete the refund"...

[Pib]

You sure did....my bad....must be too early in the morning. 

 

But hey, at least I learned something new that IRS now has an App for a person's smartphone to check refund status....I installed it a few minutes ago.  Maybe they have had the app for a long time and I was just to use to going to their webpage for check status.  Old habits die hard sometimes.  

 

Maybe the govt shutdown earlier this year actually impacted refunds although the Trump administration tried to ensure the public there would be little or no impact/slowdown.  IRS employees did have to continue working without pay during the shutdown so maybe that lessened their motivation during their workday. Plus, since govt agencies always rely on a lot of "contract workers" in direct or indirect support roles and since contract workers were "not" at work or getting paid, maybe that slowed things down....caused a backlog which hasn't been cleared out yet...is causing a slowdown.  

 

Over the years my refunds have usually arrived in two weeks or less but there have been a few times where it took around 3 weeks.  

 

But as mentioned earlier, this year I must send Uncle Sam a small amount instead of getting a refund....I bet my payment will get processed/deducted from my bank account triple-ASAP!!!....no delays.????

[lopburi3]

Tax refund in bank on February 6 so no delay.

[jeffandgop]

7 minutes ago, Pib said:

Maybe the govt shutdown earlier this year actually impacted refunds although the Trump administration tried to ensure the public there would be little or no impact/slowdown. 

The shutdown was over by the time I did my return...fyi...thanks...

[jeffandgop]

Thanks

[Pib]

Just now, jeffandgop said:

The shutdown was over by the time I did my return...fyi...thanks...

Yes, but a backlog could have been created.  It's like a car accident on a busy highway road....a traffic jam continues to exist long after the tow trucks have removed the vehicles involved in the accident....takes time for the traffic jam to clear out.

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/17/18187166/government-shutdown-tax-refunds-returns-2019

[Boon Mee]

Received my refund couple of weeks ago. 

[Jaybott]

My preparer eFiled mine on Feb 3, just received it yesterday, March 6 by direct deposit.  BTW I paid $8000.00 less income tax than I did last year and I made $9100.00 more in taxable income.  Instead of my normal refund of approximately $2100.00 I got a refund of $10,185.00. Not a bad handful of crumbs.

[kokopelli]

I received my refund less than two  weeks after filing on line. Shortest time ever and that was in Feb.

[wwest5829]

1 hour ago, Jaybott said:

My preparer eFiled mine on Feb 3, just received it yesterday, March 6 by direct deposit.  BTW I paid $8000.00 less income tax than I did last year and I made $9100.00 more in taxable income.  Instead of my normal refund of approximately $2100.00 I got a refund of $10,185.00. Not a bad handful of crumbs.

I am not surprised, higher income individuals benefited most from the Republican-passed tax changes. I may benefit also being retired and the standard deduction has been doubled. Having a total income of around $34K (includes $16 K from SS) and being over 65 I am hopeful but have not done my tax reporting as yet.

[Skeptic7]

Surprisingly, my e-filed refund came faster than ever this year. Because of the shutdown, thought it might be delayed. Happily was not the case.

Edited March 8, 2019 by Skeptic7

[ThaiWai]

I have yet to receive my 1099 from NYS

[Tracyb]

I filed mine via Turbo Tax during the last week of January.  I just got my direct deposit refund at my Stateside bank last week.  I too was checking the IRS “Track My Refund” site right up to the time I got the money.  I was getting the same message.....and no forecasted deposit date.  Hang in there!

[ProbPossConf]

Filed on Feb. 22, both Federal and state refunds deposited into my bank on March 7th.

[lopburi3]

Just checked when filed mine via Taxact - 26 January and as said refund in bank 6 February which was very fast - but simple 1040 with only retirement and a few interest banking accounts.

[A1Str8]

Whats a tax?

[jeffandgop]

Here's an update to my original post...

 

Having still not received my refund, and being no change to the IRS "Refund Status" webpage ("In Process") after filing electronically 6 1/2 weeks ago, today I called the IRS' International Taxpayer assistance line; and to my surprise almost immediately got a live person to ask for my status...after waiting on hold for about 7 minutes, she told me that the IRS had made some sort of error when processing my return, and on 4Feb the IRS "re-processed" my return...and this resulted in the delay; and I needed to wait 6-8 weeks after their "re-processing" date (4Feb) to receive my refund (direct deposit).....

[Retfed50]

I filed my return electronically on March 11 and the refund was deposited to my bank account today. 

[jeffandgop]

On 3/13/2019 at 9:10 AM, jeffandgop said:

Here's an update to my original post...

 

Having still not received my refund, and being no change to the IRS "Refund Status" webpage ("In Process") after filing electronically 6 1/2 weeks ago, today I called the IRS' International Taxpayer assistance line; and to my surprise almost immediately got a live person to ask for my status...after waiting on hold for about 7 minutes, she told me that the IRS had made some sort of error when processing my return, and on 4Feb the IRS "re-processed" my return...and this resulted in the delay; and I needed to wait 6-8 weeks after their "re-processing" date (4Feb) to receive my refund (direct deposit).....

No more than 4 hours after I provided the update above, a letter from the IRS arrived in my mailbox.  The letter advised that my tax return had been flagged for possible identity theft, and I was required to call the telephone number provided to confirm my identity and verify I had indeed filed the tax return they had in hand; until such time I had called to confirm my identity the tax return was NOT going to be processed and no refund would be forthcoming.

NOTE that the date on this IRS notification letter was 12 Feb- 8 days AFTER the IRS agent had told me during my call earlier that day that my tax return was in process.

I called the IRS's identity verification hotline and confirmed with the agent my identity and tax return details. My tax return was flagged due to the reporting, for the first time, Social Security income on my tax return.  This IRS agent also stated that the information I was provided by the other agent was totally incorrect.  I was then told that my tax return would now be processed and to expect a refund within 9 weeks since it was being manually processed.

Today the IRS's "Refund Status" webpage reported I would receive the refund in my bank by the middle of this week.

 

[Pib]

On 3/8/2019 at 9:30 AM, Pib said:

 

But as mentioned earlier, this year I must send Uncle Sam a small amount instead of getting a refund....I bet my payment will get processed/deducted from my bank account triple-ASAP!!!....no delays.????

Confirmed....since I owed Uncle Sam some money he took it fast!!!  I filed on 17 March, told Uncle Sam to direct debit from my bank account for the amount I owed, and on 19 March the debit hit my bank account.  So, Uncle Sam took a mere 2 days to get his money.

[GinBoy2]

Ugh, since I owe money I see no reason to file anything until April 15

 

I envy you, even with late refunds! LOL

[Pib]

45 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Ugh, since I owe money I see no reason to file anything until April 15

 

I envy you, even with late refunds! LOL

When filing and owing money you can set a future date for Uncle to make the debit from you bank account.  Say you owed $500...you could file today but delay payment up to the filing deadline.  Say you filed today but don't get paid till the end of the month...tell the IRS to not do  the bank debit until say the first of the month. 

 

A few links below discussing the varying methods/delays you can do....file today, pay at a future date.

 

https://www.taxact.com/support/357/2018/tax-due-payment-methods-federal-only

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc202