As of April 1, more than 70 million taxpayers have gotten refunds, averaging $3,175, on their 2021 tax returns. If you file your tax return electronically, choose direct deposit and don’t make any mistakes, you could get your refund in 21 days or less. If you file on paper, you’re stuck in line behind folks who filed on paper last year and are still waiting for those refunds.
Here are steps to take to have a better chance of getting your tax refund faster.
Reconcile advance child tax credit and stimulus payments. If you got advance Child Tax Credit payments in the second half of 2021, make sure you enter the amount correctly on your return. Incorrect entries when reporting these payments mean the IRS will need to further review the tax return, creating an extensive delay, the IRS warns. Same for the third stimulus payment, including any true-up payments. If you’re claiming any remaining payment as a Recovery Rebate Credit, make sure to enter the amount you’ve received so far correctly or be prepared for a delay. Look in your pile of mail for Letter 6419 that confirms any advance Child Tax Credit payments and/or Letter 6475 that spells out any stimulus payments. Or you can sign up for an IRS online account to check the numbers.
Before you call the IRS… try the updated FAQs on topics that are tripping up taxpayers this tax season. During last year’s filing season, call volume nearly tripled and only 11 percent of calls reached a customer service rep, according to the Taxpayer Advocate. So the IRS is doing what it can to minimize phone calls this filing season. The IRS updated its 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit FAQs on April 13, its Child Tax Credit and Advance Child Tax Credit FAQs on March 8, and its 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit FAQs on March 2.
File electronically and choose direct deposit, or get ready for a really long wait. The IRS is buried in paper—dating as far back as April 2021. As of April 1, 2022, the IRS had 11.4 million unprocessed original paper individual and business returns (including 3.3 million returns received in 2021), 5.1 million paper and electronic returns suspended for manual processing, 3.7 million unprocessed amended returns, and 7.3 million pieces of correspondence and other forms submitted by taxpayers, according to the Taxpayer Advocate. E-file returns can go through automatically. Paper returns get put in line in the order they come in.
If your e-filed return is rejected, don’t panic. if you try to e-file and your return is rejected. There may be an easy fix. If your 2020 return is still unprocessed, you should enter “0” for AGI in the identity verification part of the process. If you used the non-filer portal in 2021 to register for an Advance Child Tax Credit payment or third stimulus payment, then you should enter “1” at that step.
Check Where’s My Refund. The IRS Where’s My Refund tool lets you look up your return and refund status. If you get the dreaded message “your return processing has been delayed beyond the normal timeframe,” don’t assume the worst (90 to 120 days). In my case, I got that message, and my small refund (thanks in part to a PHEV credit for a Mini) came in on Day 26.
Further Reading:
Tax Day 2022: How To Get A Bigger Tax Refund
IRS: We Apologize, Your Tax Refund Is Delayed