Mailed 2020 Tax Return in March 2024, Still not showing as Accepted

[planetm69]

Just as title says, I mailed my 2020 Tax return on April 22, certified, and signature required. The IRS received the return within days as noted by the USPS  but oddly enough, the little card that shows they received it was dated for about 2 weeks later.. 

With thay said, I have been looking to see if they shoa they have accepted the return and it is still showing no return has been received for 2020. Is this normal for mailes returns? It is boa just over 4 weeks since mailed. I guess I'm just used to being accepted withinnhours/days when electronic filing.

Any thoughts? 

[Bsch4477]

Plan on 6-8 weeks for previous year mailed returns. 

[mesquitebean]

NOTE:  In one place you said "March" above, and in another place you said "April."

The term "accepted" is only an efile term and has nothing to do with a mailed return. It simply means an efiled return (for those who efiled) was accepted by the IRS in the right format for processing to begin. You don't get any notice like that for a mailed return.

@ planetm69  wrote:  " I have been looking to see if they shoa they have accepted the return and it is still showing no return has been received for 2020."

How have you been doing that?  Looking where?   If you are in your online IRS account looking at a transcript, it can take a long time for a mailed return to show up in the transcript. 

And the IRS "Where's My Refund" lookup tool is only for tax years 2021-2023.

You're lucky you got your green receipt card back.   It can sit in a bag of mail for a long period of time.  Sometimes they don't even bother to send it back.   They get so much certified mail that they often just sign a manifest of item numbers prepared by the USPS and later go through the bag.

It can take at least 6-8 weeks or longer to process a mailed paper return.  

[Mike9241]

you'll never get an acceptance notification or any other kind of notification that the IRS received your "MAILED" return. in the future if you mail a return, you should use a tracking method.  if the 2020 return got lost in the mail, you have forfeited your refund because the return had to be received by the IRS by 4/15/2024 unless it was properly extended to 10/15/2021

the IRS may have gotten it but it would be sitting in an unopened mail bag waiting to be processed. calling will do no good