IRS Refund Delays

Identity Theft Safeguards Delay Refunds, Problems with the "Where's My Refund Tool"

In late January, the IRS sent an email to tax professionals warning that tax refunds could be delayed a week this tax season because of new anti-fraud safeguards.  The email stated that the IRS had fine-tuned its identity theft filters to prevent the growing trend of tax refund fraud.  However, many taxpayers nationwide, including some Smith, Kunz clients experienced much longer delays.

The IRS "Where's My Refund" tool, which we provide a link to on our site, has also experienced problems.  The tool was giving a different expected refund date whenever taxpayers checked up on the status of their refunds.  The tool also erroneously told many taxpayers that it had no information on the status of their tax refunds.

The website Accounting Today reached out to the IRS regarding the problem and received the following response from IRS spokesperson Dean Patterson:

“Earlier issues in January and February with IRS systems and the ‘Where’s My Refund’ tool have been resolved.

“In the first few weeks of the filing season, there were two different issues that came up that resulted in longer refund cycles than taxpayers may have expected. Those issues only affected a subset of taxpayers filing returns. Both issues are resolved.”

We hope that the IRS has truly resolved the issues described above.  For more information, refer to this article at Accounting Today.  Other articles appear here, and here.

If your refund has been delayed, please contact Smith, Kunz.  If you are a Smith, Kunz client, we can provide you information regarding the date your e-filed return was acknowledged, processed, and accepted by the IRS.  Once the return has been accepted, the delays in issuing the refund could be due to the issues cited above.  Check in with us to confirm that the delays are due to the identity theft safeguards.

3/8/12 UPDATE:

Another story from the Wall Street Journal highlights the challenges faced by the IRS and the reasons for widespread delays in refunds.  Here's the link.