The IRS has around 12 million tax returns that have been caught in a processing backlog created by the pandemic, which shut down the IRS for a time. Americans should see their refunds in the coming months. "We would hope to be through this backlog by the summer," said IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.
- The IRS also has millions of returns that have to be manually verified which is also causing a delay.
Other reasons some returns take longer to process are the following:
- Perhaps you had a refund offset.
- Includes errors
- Is incomplete
- Is affected by identity theft or fraud
- Includes a claim filed for an Earned Income Tax Credit or an Additional Child Tax Credit. See Q&A below.
- Includes a Form 8379, which could take up to 14 weeks to process
- Needs further review in general
- The IRS will contact you by mail when we need more information to process your return.