The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act (PATH Act) prevents the IRS from issuing early refunds on any tax return that claims the Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC) and/or Additional Child Tax Credit.
Congress passed (in 2015) the PATH Act because identity thieves frequently claim one or both of these refundable tax credits. The PATH Act gives the IRS extra time to detect fraudulently-filed returns, which helps identity theft victims get their legitimate refunds more quickly.
The IRS usually begins issuing tax refunds on returns with the EIC or Additional Child Tax Credit in late February.
If your return contains either of these credits, you can track its status at the IRS Where's My Refund? site.
They IRS has always reviewed tax returns. However, in normal times, those are manually processed and the refunds issued or letters sent out within the stated time-frames. Things are not normal right now and all of those returns that are under review (yours) are not being processed. They are just sitting there waiting on the IRS to resume normal operations.
Topic No. 152 Refund Information
IRS Operations During COVID-19: Mission-critical functions continue
@Ramer09
**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
