Fed tax refund FYI

[Brian Tymchak]

So, I got to thinking a week or so ago that it was way past time to have received our Fed tax refund. It's been almost 3 months since I sent taxes in. I can't remember the last time we got a refund but I retired last year and that made a significant difference. Last week I tried the "Where's My Refund" IRS site, but it could not find any info on our return. Tried again today and same result. Since I wasn't doing much today, I decided to invest the time and call the IRS. Found that following their prompts, I ended up at the "Where's My Refund" voice service that gave me the same result. Tried calling again and this time went down a different branch of prompts, hit 0 a few times (can't believe that trick still works), and got redirected to a real human being, who in turned transferred me to a real human in their refunds department. Real nice guy, checked my account, and confirmed they did not have my return yet. :confused:

It turns out that all of the IRS service centers closed in mid March due to the virus. They are just beginning to reopen. The center I mailed to will reopen at the end of June. So, it will probably be mid August before we get our check.

I joked with guy that this teach me to learn to efile, but he said that that hasn't made much difference in processing refunds.

So, bottom line is that if you are wondering where your refund is, hang in there.

Funny thing though, we got both state and local refunds in normal time frames.

[glenn bradley]

Wait, people still mail their tax forms in!?! Since when?

Sorry to joke at your expense Brian. I think I'm getting stir crazy and am getting a little rude. I've been online since the 80's so sometimes these things catch me by surprise.

Next year file electronically and have your refund EFT'd to your checking account. The last time I mailed taxes was the very early 90's. Remember dial-up?

[Doug Garson]

Efiled my and my wife's returns about a month ago and got our refunds direct deposited about a week later. Really no different from any other year other than the reporting deadline was pushed back by a month. Of course that's Revenue Canada not the IRS.

[John Lanciani]

E-filed the first week of Feb., had my refund exactly 7 days later.

[Brian Tymchak]

Wait, people still mail their tax forms in!?! Since when?

Sorry to joke at your expense Brian. I think I'm getting stir crazy and am getting a little rude. I've been online since the 80's so sometimes these things catch me by surprise.

Next year file electronically and have your refund EFT'd to your checking account. The last time I mailed taxes was the very early 90's. Remember dial-up?

No sweat! I laugh at myself sometimes about how my career was in high tech so one would think I would've been efiling long ago. But I'm a late, late adopter.

Usually, in fact maybe 19 of the last 20 years, we always had to pay, which I actually prefer. I had no real incentive to efile so it's a habit I never changed. But I've seen the light. In fact I need to file estimated for Q1. I'll try efile for that.

[Jim Koepke]

We have H&R Block do our taxes. They submit them electronically. Our federal refund was deposited on March 27th. That was only a few days after filing. Our California taxes took only a few more days due to a mix up.

jtk

[Ronald Blue]

We efiled through our tax guy in the latter part of March and had the refund in about 2 weeks. I'm skeptical of what your contact told you. I'd be concerned they didn't receive it.

[Ron Selzer]

efiled federal and got refund not longer after, mailed state, school taxes later and have not heard anything yet
filed city taxes last week showing I owe nothing, expect a letter telling me I did not figure it right and pay them more money soon

[Jason Roehl]

We used to get a refund, so I would try to do my taxes and e-file in early February. Due to a flood of life changes last year, we owed pretty big this year. I had the taxes done in February again, but wasn't going to write that big check until the April 15 deadline. But now the deadline is July 15, so...they can wait. I'm glad I did my taxes early so that I could make the appropriate (I hope) withholding changes for both my wife and I so that the check doesn't have to be quite as big next year.

I switched from paper forms to electronic about 10-15 years ago. Cut the amount of time it took me to do taxes by about 75%, and since I was self-employed at the time, that was huge.

[Jim Becker]

I always e-file directly from TurboTax for Federal. But we don't get refunds; quite the opposite and planned that way. I really don't do anything with paper when there's a secure mechanism to avoid it.

[Dan Hunkele]

My girl E filed my taxes in May. I owed and sent in a check at the same time. The check was promptly cashed.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I filed my taxes by mail at the beginning of February and sent a check for what I owed, and it got cashed a week or so later so I know they got my return. Whether anyone has looked at it yet I don't have any idea, but at least I know it arrived. I do a lot of things online, but for my taxes I like to do them on paper so I can photocopy them before I send them in and have an exact record of everything.

[Jim Koepke]

It is my nature to be uncomfortable owing money. Same with Candy. We have always set our withholding so as to not owe any when our taxes are filed. It has worked in all but one year when we sold a house in California.

Some of my coworkers have always tried telling me my money was a free loan to the government and it could be invested and earning interest. Funny, not a single person trying to convince me this was a good idea ever invested the money they ended up having to write a check to cover come tax time. A few of the folks who espoused "a better way" would have to borrow money to pay their taxes.

it always made more sense to me to have the federal government owe me a little money than for me to owe them any.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Jim, I'm one of those folks that prefer to owe a little rather than have a refund coming...that maximizes my own use of my own money. It's not about investing; it's about not having money sitting somewhere that I have no access to it for as much as a year.

[Kev Williams]

I haven't filed yet. Got everything printed out and ready to go, including the check for the balance due. I've never e-filed. Thought about many years ago, and just last weekend I did a 'test drive'. Got to where I thought I should be close to the 'submit' part, but nope. Just too many what I consider to be prying questions and requests for info... I know this much, when THEY have an issue with something I did wrong on a return, I don't get e-anything. I get papers in the mail. If paper is good enough for them, it's good enough for me...

[Bruce Wrenn]

Still waiting for my four dollars and nineteen cents. Filed (paper) by April 15. Second year in row of getting a refund, after having to send a check for over thirty years. Never enough owed to get a penalty. As for electronically, friend used Turbo taxes for years. He was self employed, just as I was. Opens mail from IRS, and finds out that Turbo tax never figured any Self Employment Taxes all those years. Remember he filed a Schedule "C" so Turbo tax should have figured his SE taxes, but didn't. Had to come up with over 50K on short notice. What did Turbo tax offer to do, even though it was THEIR MISTAKE, give him free tax preparation for the next three years. Having owned a business most of my life, after I get everything together, it simple to just fill out the form. For 2019, my wife had a stock buy back (one share) that resulted in a nineteen dollar long term loss. Had to fill out FIVE pages, front and back, to only find out on last page that I didn't need to do any of it. So much fun!

[Jim Becker]

I haven't filed yet. Got everything printed out and ready to go, including the check for the balance due. I've never e-filed. Thought about many years ago, and just last weekend I did a 'test drive'. Got to where I thought I should be close to the 'submit' part, but nope. Just too many what I consider to be prying questions and requests for info... I know this much, when THEY have an issue with something I did wrong on a return, I don't get e-anything. I get papers in the mail. If paper is good enough for them, it's good enough for me...

Kev, the personal information questions right before the final transmittal are to prove that you are who you say you are. They do this because some scammers will try to file for refunds using someone else's taxpayer information number. It protects you.

I haven't filed yet, either...no point in sending them money before they actually want it. :)

[Brian Elfert]

We efiled through our tax guy in the latter part of March and had the refund in about 2 weeks. I'm skeptical of what your contact told you. I'd be concerned they didn't receive it.

The IRS website very specifically states they are not processing paper returns due to COVID-19. I don't know if they are worried about employees getting COVID-19 from the paper, or what. (The virus doesn't last long on paper and quarantining for a few days or a week would be plenty of time for the virus to die.)

[Brian Elfert]

I have set up my taxes to owe money every year. I have tried to get my exemptions correct so I am as close to zero as possible.

I e-filed my return in April, but you are able to set the date money is pulled from your account so I set it to pay on July 14th.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, I'm one of those folks that prefer to owe a little rather than have a refund coming...that maximizes my own use of my own money. It's not about investing; it's about not having money sitting somewhere that I have no access to it for as much as a year.

In my case it is being used to having money without access like in a 401k or other arrangements.


Kev, the personal information questions right before the final transmittal are to prove that you are who you say you are. They do this because some scammers will try to file for refunds using someone else's taxpayer information number. It protects you.

I haven't filed yet, either...no point in sending them money before they actually want it. :)

With all the scamming if someone went part way and bailed at the verification questions could that raise a red flag?


The IRS website very specifically states they are not processing paper returns due to COVID-19. I don't know if they are worried about employees getting COVID-19 from the paper, or what. (The virus doesn't last long on paper and quarantining for a few days or a week would be plenty of time for the virus to die.)

Most likely it is because the IRS personnel processing returns are not in the office due to covid-19 quarantines. Yes much of the country is opening up, but people are getting infected because of it.

jtk