Around 75% of Americans can expect a stimulus check in the form of a tax refund, and it could be the biggest check that families could receive this year. But there could be a recurrence of the snarl of 2021 when the IRS help up 30M refunds and returns.
Officials of the Treasury Department foresaw a repeat of the challenge of 2021 as they started the processing returns in the last week of January. One major reason was the returns backlog from 2021 when there was an unprecedented spurt in filings to claim the third stimulus check.
There were 6M unprocessed individual income tax returns on Dec. 31, 2021. Though a significant decrease from May 2021 when there were 30M unprocessed returns, it was still way more than the 1M that is normal at the end of the calendar year.
This might create a sense of uncertainty among citizens but most citizens can expect to get their income tax refunds within 3 weeks of filing their returns, the IRS revealed. Many taxpayers have already received their refunds if posts from social media are any indication.
Letters Attached With The Stimulus Check Are Vital For Filing Returns
The IRS gave out figures that reveal that they have issued $9.5B refunds through 4.3M payments. But the 21 days window has some qualifications attached. Your returns will be delayed if you claim the Earned Income or the Child Tax Credit. This is due to inbuilt regulations that are meant to discourage fraud. So people who file their return by January 24 and immediately after can only expect a stimulus check in early March.
Other issues that can delay your refund include calculation errors and wrong figures from the CTC payments. If your return gets flagged due to this reason, you could be in for a wait of several months even. Returns that contain errors on the 3rd stimulus check that are suspected of fraud could take 3 to 4 months to resolve.
The IRS is also sending a letter to filers who received the 3rd stimulus check giving details. This letter is important while filing returns. Letter 6475 sent by the IRS will contain figures about the 3rd stimulus check, which should be kept for the 2021 returns.