If I submitted my 2020 tax return before the $10,200 exclusion of unemployment benefits, should I have received a refund by now ?

[manuel61402]

I’ve been waiting for more than a year to see if I would get any sort of unemployment tax refund. I submitted my taxes around early February in 2021 and it has been over a year and I still haven’t received any unemployment tax refund. Should I amend my tax return or keep waiting ?

[Mike9241]

if you e-filed did and if you got an acceptance e-mail it's possible your's is among the 3 million returns the IRS has not yet processed.

Turbotax receives no updates once accepted or if you mailed in your return.

other than that all you can do is call the IRS.

[fanfare]

@manuel61402 

IRS says:

all the simple returns for the $10,200 correction have been processed and they are working on the complex ones.

That should give you some idea of the IRS backlog.

If your return was complex you should wait some more.

if your amendment makes you eligible for additional credits other than EIC, you should amend to get those credits.

[fanfare]

@Mike9241 

IRS "Where's My Refund"  is not updated  if your return is adjusted later by IRS.

[Critter-3]

First are you sure you will get more of a refund due to this change?  Not everyone will ... 

You will get an additional federal income tax refund for the unemployment exclusion if all of the following are true.

• You reported unemployment benefits as income on your 2020 tax return, on Schedule 1 line 7.
• You did not get the unemployment exclusion on the 2020 tax return that you filed. The unemployment exclusion would appear as a negative amount on Schedule 1 line 8, with the abbreviation UCE on the dotted line to the left of the amount.
• Your tax on Form 1040 line 16 is not zero.
• Your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), not including unemployment, is less than $150,000.

If you are entitled to more of a refund then use the amendment process to see how much ... then check your transcript on the IRS site to see what the IRS has or has not done with the return.  You may need to ask for help from the taxpayer advocate office to get things moving along.

How to amend (change or correct) a return you've already filed

https://www.irs.gov/payments/view-your-tax-account

 http://www.irs.gov/Advocate/Local-Taxpayer-Advocate