Your Tax Refund Is Delayed. It Could Be Years.

Taxpayers waiting for a refund check usually get their money within 21 days of filing a return. The unlucky ones can sometimes wait years. Refunds can be delayed when computers at the Internal Revenue Service flag a return for a variety of reasons. There might be an error, inconsistency or indication of possible identity theft that requires a human to check it. Taxpayers might not get an explanation.

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The backlog has been reduced since the pandemic. As of Dec. 21, the latest IRS data available, there were 686,000 individual returns waiting to be processed—mostly from last tax season and most due refunds. Of those, 600,000 require error correction or special handling. There are also 844,000 amended returns in the queue. Taxpayers whose refunds get stuck in purgatory, as in Horan’s case, should escalate the issue past the regular IRS customer-service line, tax advisers said.

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When refunds are delayed, taxpayers should first check the Where’s My Refund tool to see if there is an explanation, the IRS said. To see the refund’s status, you need your Social Security number or taxpayer identification number, your filing status and the amount of your expected refund. How long a refund is delayed depends on the issue with the return. The IRS often can correct math errors without involving taxpayers, so those refunds might be delayed just a few weeks. If there are concerns about possible identity theft, taxpayers could wait more than a year, according to the IRS.

When all else fails, file a 911. That is the IRS form to get assistance from the Taxpayer Advocate Service, a watchdog that helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS. The advocate can step in when a tax issue causes financial hardship or if an IRS process or procedure just isn’t working as it should. They don’t take on every request.

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In some cases, Kubey recommends that taxpayers reach out to their representatives in Congress. One client had a situation where the IRS and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which issues refund checks, kept pointing fingers at each other. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office helped get the refund check delivered.

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