You’ve done it all right this tax season. You’ve filed your taxes early too, in hopes of getting your tax Refund ASAP. However, it’s not that simple. The IRS maintains that it takes at least twenty-one days for a return to be processed and issued.

With the tax season behind us now, all those of you who haven’t still received your refund might be wondering, “Why haven’t I received my Tax Refund yet?”

Well, there can be many reasons behind your refund getting delayed.

Issues With The IRS

Although the IRS maintains that it gives out 90% of the refunds to taxpayers within twenty-one days itself if you are among the 10% that hasn’t made the cut, these are the possible reasons:

• Your tax file takes many days to arrive at the IRS.
• Something must’ve gone wrong with the mail service. For instance, your file may have been misplaced or stolen. In such a case, you need to report the missing file to IRS.
• The bank details you provided were incorrect. IRS is not responsible for any Error on your part to file the return.
• Even if the IRS receives your return file, the entire process involves a lot of complicated paperwork, and so, it’s possible that’s causing the delay.

Whatever be the reason, you can always check the status of your refund at IRS’ official website (www.irs.gov) by clicking on “Check My Refund Status” link. Here you can check your refund status after 24 hours of filing an electronic return. However, if you have registered for a paper return, you may have to wait much longer to access your refund information.

Possible Errors In Your Review

Often, it may be so that your tax return file displays some errors that you may have overlooked. In such a case, your tax refund will be delayed.

When the IRS finds errors in your file, the entire scanning and reviewing process has to be done manually to avoid any further mistakes. After the manual scanning, your tax information has to be entered into a computer system and compiled in a raw data format for more advanced error scanning. All of this can take a lot of time to be completed.

You Need To Make Amends To Your Return File

Sometimes, even after you’ve filed for a tax return, you might need to amend your tax return file due to the following reasons:

• You need to alter your filing status.
• You’ve made an error in claiming a deduction.
• You’ve received a corrected W-2 or 1099.

If you need to make amendments to your tax return file, you may have to wait even longer (about 12-16 weeks) since your file will be reviewed again to find out if you will get more money.

You Did Not Clear All Of Your Debts

The IRS can take strict measures if it finds out that you’ve failed to pay off your debts. For instance, you have bills that are past their due date, or you’ve fallen behind on your student loan. Situations like these are valid grounds for the IRS to hold back your money. Of course, the IRS will send you a notice intimating you about holding onto your refund.

While these are a few potential causes of delay in your tax refund, you don’t need to panic. Probably the delay is an internal issue of the IRS as processing the refund of so many taxpayers is no cakewalk. You should only start to take the delay seriously if the gap has been abnormally long.

Still unsure about how to know your tax refund status? Contact My Tax Filer at [email protected].