Where’s my tax refund? Americans face delays as IRS holds nearly 30M tax returns for manual processing
The Internal Revenue Service is holding 29 million tax returns for manual processing, contributing to more refund delays than are typical in a normal filing season due to sweeping tax code changes, limited resources, outdated IT systems and a backlog of unprocessed 2019 paper tax returns, according to Erin Collins, the National Taxpayer Advocate.
“As one would expect, IRS employees are stretched thin working through the manual processing of these returns,” Collins said Wednesday. “So if a taxpayer’s return is pulled for manual processing, there will be delays.”
Typically, the IRS sends most refunds within 21 days or less of taxpayers filing their return. But for some early filers, the wait for a tax refund has been six weeks to eight weeks already.
