Refund delays

[oceanlovin'ea]

Are you having refund delays with your clients?? I was out of town last week so am a little out of the loop. Checked on 2 different returns that should have had by now. One had a date around the first of March and now it just says it has been received and is being processed. The other one IRS accepted on 2/23 and Where's my refund? says they will get refund on March 20th. That is a month!!!!

Is this happening to your clients too? Has anyone heard any reports about processing problems?

Linda, EA

[FEDUKE404]

IRS is slow

Are you having refund delays with your clients?? I was out of town last week so am a little out of the loop. Checked on 2 different returns that should have had by now. One had a date around the first of March and now it just says it has been received and is being processed. The other one IRS accepted on 2/23 and Where's my refund? says they will get refund on March 20th. That is a month!!!!

Is this happening to your clients too? Has anyone heard any reports about processing problems?

Linda, EA

I've heard of delays but no specifics. Apparently there were some issues with new IRS software and the large volume of returns.

Quite frankly, I do not routinely go checking on any refunds unless a client advises me of the need to do so.

I assume you are asking about efiled returns??

FE

[RitaB]

Hmm, not at present

Are you having refund delays with your clients?? I was out of town last week so am a little out of the loop. Checked on 2 different returns that should have had by now. One had a date around the first of March and now it just says it has been received and is being processed. The other one IRS accepted on 2/23 and Where's my refund? says they will get refund on March 20th. That is a month!!!!

Is this happening to your clients too? Has anyone heard any reports about processing problems?

Linda, EA

I am not getting calls at present, but I had about 100 that were projected for Feb 15 that were late. OK, 20. Anyhow, I got a lot of "tell them it's not guaranteed to be that date". Well, duh, I do that. I was venting slash trying to figure out what the problem on IRS end was.

My point, and I do have one, is yeah, there have been delays. Sorry it is affecting you. It is aggravating to get those calls, even if it's not your fault.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-news/2012/02/22/taxpayers-frustrated-by-refund-delay/

[Golden Rocket]

Some More This Year

I guess there have always been some returns that fell through the cracks, but I do believe this year is worse. Have had a couple of complaints where there was no good reason for a delay.

I think another thing - more and more banks are sitting on the money for 24 hours or even longer. Historically, refunds have been available to people on Friday, and they are getting a couple days extra this year. I've had this happen SEVERAL times. No surprise that Bank of America is one of the offending players on this stage.

[taxea]

I've heard of delays but no specifics. Apparently there were some issues with new IRS software and the large volume of returns.

Quite frankly, I do not routinely go checking on any refunds unless a client advises me of the need to do so.

I assume you are asking about efiled returns??

FE

I put the refund number and website on my invoice and let them know that it is there if they need to use it.

[taxmandan]

The IRS has problems with the new fraud screening programs and that has caused delays. They are trying to stop the AOC frauds that have really cost the go'vt. but apparently it really slowed down processing.

Several times Drake efiles have been flipped to the legacy program from the MeF and that also seems to slow refunds.

[RitaB]

Yep

I put the refund number and website on my invoice and let them know that it is there if they need to use it.

Yep, that info is on my client letter, and some actually read it.

But, when this happens (see article above), they still call the tax preparer:

"Taxpayers are continuing to wait longer than usual to receive their refunds, and a recent problem with the IRS’ “Where’s My Refund” tool caused many to fear that their returns hadn’t been filed at all, tax preparers say."

[Bonnie]

I get lots of feedback from my customers. Returns filed in first couple weeks of E-filing in Jan were delayed for awhile, then people who filed after those, got refunds quicker. Returns filed first couple weeks of Feb took exceptionally long, some as much as 4-5 weeks. From all I can gather, returns filed within the past 2-3 weeks are being processed about as normal in past years. I do know the IRS had issues and at one point switched back to the old system for a few days and then went back to the MEF system. The whole switch over was suppose to speed up refunds. So far not this year so hopefully they will get bugs worked out and by next year it will all work better. The longer wait for refunds has nothing to do with the banks.

[taxea]

The IRS blew it while you were soaking up the "rays" oops I mean RAIN. tehee