My Refund status says "We have received your tax return and it is being reviewed." what does that mean?

[bluedeb · Accepted solution]

Until you receive the actual notice from the IRS indicating what they are reviewing, you will not know exactly what the issue is. When you receive the notice it should tell you exactly what the IRS is challenging and what documents you need to supply to show that what you claimed is accurate. This inquiry could simply be a random check of whether you are qualified to claim the EIC, or they are checking credits that were claimed, or checking about the stimulus payments,  but until the IRS sends you a letter or the status changes on the IRS website, Where's My Refund, all you can do is wait.

[dev_taxes]

How long before IRS sends a letter... The status has unchanged for 3 weeks and no explanation or letter to ask for information or suggest what is being reviewed... I was hoping someone could answer that instead... I understand they are reviewing, and it could be this or that or then some... This should have by no means be marked as solved as it's a rather vanilla response... 

[bluedeb · Accepted solution]

@dev_taxes  It is not a vanilla answer.  It is the answer.  There is nothing nobody can do for you.  You have to wait until you hear from the IRS.  The IRS is backlogged so it is taking them longer to process returns and send out letters.  It can take the letter from 4 to 8 weeks to receive.

[dev_taxes]

I wasn't asking for anyone to do anything for me 🙂 I was just wondering how long, and you answered it this time... IRS hasn't said they want any information from me yet...  My situation was that I had received a wrong W2 and had been waiting on forever for my employer to correct so filled in manually the first time around... Then filed an Amendment when I did finally receive the correct W2... I am assuming it's because of that mess it is being reviewed but cannot be sure until IRS tells me so or asks something of me... Thanks for the help all the same...