The tax season in the United States began on January 24. Since that date, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is accepting and processing 2021 tax returns.
If you have already filed your taxes and are wondering when the IRS will start sending refunds in 2022, take note of these keys.
According to the IRS, most taxpayers who file an “accurate and smooth” tax return will receive their refund within 21 days of e-filing.
How to file your 2021 federal income tax return in the US
A hassle-free filing to avoid processing delays and get your refund as quickly as possible would be to “file electronically with direct deposit if possible” and use the tax agency’s online resources instead of calling, Chuck Retting said, IRS commissioner.
Retting warned that submitting it on paper this year would mean “a long delay.”
In 2021, they reimbursed an average of more than US$2,800, according to the US tax agency.
Delays due to the pandemic
The pandemic and budget constraints may delay refunds and other services to taxpayers this tax season. The IRS may take longer than expected to process tax refunds also due to a backlog of unprocessed cases from last year.
The Treasury Department even warned last week of possible delays in the 2021 tax return. According to the report by Taxpayer Advocate Services, an independent entity that is part of the IRS, the pandemic brought various challenges to the agency.
Employees working from home began processing millions of dollars as part of the three stimulus packages approved by Congress, as well as sending child tax credits and processing millions of tax returns.
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“The IRS is in crisis and needs to inject resources into its core mission: processing returns and paying refunds. The imbalance between the workload of the IRS and its resources has never been greater,” he warned.
As of mid-December, the agency had not processed 8.6 million individual returns and more than 3 million business returns from last year. Just like they had over 5 million unanswered letters from taxpayers.
According to the IRS, taxpayers do not have to wait for their 2020 return to be processed to file their 2021 return.
Taxpayers have until April 18 to file, a few days longer than usual due to Washington’s Emancipation Day holiday, which falls on April 15.
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Where is your refund?
If you want to know the status of your refund, you can do it through the IRS site “Where’s my refund?” and the IRS2Go mobile app.
In both cases, to access information about your tax return you must provide:
- Your social security number or ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number)
- Your marital status for tax filing purposes
- The exact amount of your refund
You can check the status of your return 24 hours after submitting the return electronically, or 4 weeks if you have submitted it on paper.
When does tax season start?
The IRS takes a few weeks to prepare to process the millions of returns it receives during tax season. Last year, taxpayers submitted more than 168 million individual tax returns to the IRS. But officials at the agency and the Treasury Department say some have yet to be processed due to delays stemming from the pandemic.
The IRS will begin accepting and processing new returns on January 24. The agency says most taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days from the time they file an electronic return, except in cases where there are processing issues. Electronic filing, if linked to direct deposit data, is the fastest way to receive a refund. The average refund last year was more than $2,800.