in the future when mailing tax returns, income tax payments, and the like use a method whereby you can track that thy've been delivered. this is the only way you'll know that they arrived until they are processed. Until then the iRS doesn't even know they exist. some say it takes 6 months for the IRS to process paper filings. the truth is no one knows. some OPs have complained they have heard nothing about their 2020 refunds which were mailed over a year ago.
