The 2021 income tax return refund checks appear set to be headed for a long delay and the IRS has already cautioned filers in no uncertain terms that the 21 days expected schedule for a refund check doesn’t apply this year. So if you are relying on it to make a major payment on a certain date, you better not. The stimulus check issue has messed up the IRS schedule.
The IRS has given out a slew of the reason why people should not set payment schedules based on the refund stimulus check, it could take over a month before you receive it, maybe much longer.
Late Filers Can Expect A Huge Dulay Due To Stimulus Check Backlog
This delay is something even those who filed online should expect. Over 51.8M filers have already received their tax refund stimulus check through March 18 this year. that is a significant 4.1% up from the previous year.
The average size of the refund stimulus check has been $3,305 before the counting was up. That is a rise of 12.9% over the payments received at this time last year. refund stimulus checks worth $170B is already out there after-tax filings season started this year on January 14.
Early tax filers and tax professionals say that people who filed earlier had no issues in getting the refund stimulus check. Many received it within a couple of weeks after filing through the electronic filing system.
The IRS had found that it was in an unholy mess last year due to delays in refunds. The nightmare continues to this day as the IRS continues to be bogged down with a backlog of 17M unprocessed returns. This includes 10.8M individual unprocessed returns.
This figure comprises both electronic filers and paper returns. The challenging delays are due to the backlog of cases from last year that has been pushed to the new year by the IRS.
