What is going on with my refund, it never takes 4 months to receive it?

The IRS is backlogged, 35 million unprocessed returns as of June 30th. The more "new" things they add, the lengthier the process for those of us still waiting. 

35 million is the number published in the Taxpayer Advocate annual report.

And the news is going with that number to make it look worse than it is.

The backlog is now down to about 13 million returns that have to be checked by  a person.

Where you are in the pipeline is anybody's guess.

6 months or more is not unusual this year.  The IRS is underfunded, understaffed and it may even be that its computers are so antiquated it's hard to find people who can update its software. the good news since it says your return is being processed is that you know the IRS has it and is working on it.