Tax Experts Provide Tips to Ensure Refunds Arrive Quickly

by Yehudit Garmaise

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) starts processing returns on January 24, however, as of Dec. 23, 2021, the agency still had not processed from last year: six million individual returns, which is five times the amount of unprocessed returns the IRS usually faces at the end of tax seasons.

In March 2020, IRS employees stopped opening mail, when the IRS closed its offices, which of course, significantly delayed the processing of paper returns.

Although the IRS has made significant headway since May 2021, when the agency faced 30 million unprocessed claims in May 2021, due to staffing shortages, taxpayers may again experience long waits for their tax refund checks, which last year averaged approximately $2,800, reported CBS.

Most Americans should get their tax refunds within 21 days of filing, the IRS said on Monday, however taxpayers must ensure that they have filled out their forms correctly.

Errors in taxpayers’ math, for instance, and incorrect reports of the amounts received from the advanced Child Tax Credit payments could get tax returns flagged and lead to unnecessary delays.

"Don't have any problems that are caused from your own negligence," advised Mark W. Everson, the vice chairman at Alliantgroup, a tax consulting services firm, and a former IRS commissioner.

Tax experts have provided tips for taxpayers to speed the processing of their tax refunds.

1.      File electronically:  Last year, 7% of the 148 million returns filed were submitted on paper, however, the IRS says that taxpayers who file electronically are more likely to have their returns processed quickly because computers process them, and not humans, who are required to handle returns that are filed on paper. 

 2.     Get your refund via direct deposit: Similarly, 8% of taxpayers last year did not arrange for their returns to be directly deposited into their bank accounts. The IRS says the fastest way to get your money is to both e-file your returns and arrange for direct deposit.

3.      Don't “Guesstimate” your Earnings: Tax experts advise people to accurately report their earnings because the IRS checks taxpayers’ reported earnings against the agency’s own data. If there's a discrepancy, such as that one’s W2 reveals $60,000 of earnings for an employee who reports earnings of $58,000, then that return will be flagged for a manual review by an employee, which will create delays of weeks or months.

4.      Save IRS letters about stimulus checks and Child Tax Credits: Similarly, taxpayers who received third federal stimulus checks and advanced Child Tax Credit payments are advised to save the two letters they will receive from IRS that inform each taxpayer what they received in 2021. With the letters in hand, taxpayers can accurately report those amounts when filing their returns, which will get flagged for review if mistakes are spotted by IRS agents.

5.      Some tax credits always require delays: Even if you do everything correctly, the IRS cannot issue, before mid-February, any refunds that involve either the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit to combat fraudsters who commit identity theft to steal taxpayers’ refunds.

Photo: Flickr