Why is my tax return taking so long?

+39 votes
asked Aug 8, 2018 in Culture & Society by PhilomenaSte (240 points)
edited May 3, 2019
It’s been over a month now. The tax return I applied for still hasn’t come. Is the bureaucracy red tape so tangled up that it will take so long just for me to receive some money back? Honestly, is it so hard to just return it? How many processes does it need to go just so I can have it back? I’m still waiting for it. When I check with the tax office, they told me it’s still under procession or something. Where is my refund? Why is my tax return taking so long? This is so frustrating.

3 Answers

+17 votes
answered Apr 23, 2019 by SherylSell26 (620 points)
edited Jul 23, 2019
Tax return could take forever to come back because of wrong with the documents you send them. Missing information, wrong social security number, even the wrong tax form sent, etc.). Then there could also be the problem with the source of the refund. The number of refunds might not add up or because it’s already claimed multiple times. Check up on the IRS if this is the case. They do have a tax tool that allows you to check up on the official status of the refund. It is updated daily and should provide the latest processing status of your tax refund.

There was an announcement by the IRS that 90% of the refund should be completed and sent to senders in less than 21 days. If you haven’t received your tax by then, probably wait for one more week before taking more actions. In the meantime, review your tax review information to make sure there aren’t any obvious mistakes like wrong names or Social Security Number, or even signing the form. Then you can resubmit the amended form with an explanation of why you did so. After that, just wait and hope the money will arrive anytime soon.
+8 votes
answered Sep 13, 2018 by ArlethaPococ (360 points)
edited Jul 24, 2019
You can’t really blame the IRS for taking forever to for tax refund. Their current employment is made up mostly of people over 50 years old and the numbers are growing. They aren’t getting any younger literally. What’s worse is that the government even slashes some budget going into the IRS fund. So service is naturally slow since they have less funding to upgrade their system and there aren’t enough young recruits to replace the old ones. So couple the difficulty to pass down the knowledge and expertise to the younger generation and the underfunding, we can only expect the tax return to take longer to ever return.
commented Jun 9, 2015 by CherylSadler (150 points)
Yeah, but I don’t think older employees is the main reason why is my tax return taking so long. How slow they would be anyway, it’s not like they are 80 or 90 years old.
+7 votes
answered Jun 15, 2019 by FEMDakota328 (310 points)
edited Jul 1, 2019 by Kris
Uh, the government… you’ll always be amazed by their efficiency. But it’s not just you, buddy, I applied for my tax return, and it’s been over a month, like seriously, OVER a month, a month 4 days now.  I have the same question, why is my tax return taking so long???
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