Eight Reasons a Tax Refund Will Be Delayed

You’ve completed your taxes, filed your report, and all that’s left to do is to get your refund. But wait! What if it’s delayed?

Refunds typically come in about 3 weeks. Do you know why most refunds are delayed?  Test your knowledge below on top reasons tax refunds get delayed.

  1. Your name is spelled wrong.

Believe it or not, this is actually pretty common. Typos like name or address often slow a tax refund. Often these errors are made through carelessness and sloppy handwriting. With government forms, everything needs to be absolutely correct, so if your handwriting isn’t always the easiest to read, stick to filing electronically.

  1. The addition is wrong.

Math mistakes can easily mess up a tax return, and, if you get one number wrong, there’s a chance that other related numbers will be wrong as well. Always double check for errors to prevent a delay due to a mathematical error.

  1. You entered your information on the wrong line.

For example, entering your alimony amount in the business income line by mistake may not affect your income calculations, but it will signal the IRS that the income is from business. Business income does require additional forms, which would be missing, causing a delay in processing.

  1. You filed too early.

You may think that filing early is a good thing and doing so will result in your refund coming right away. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Some forms may not be finalized for processing by the IRS yet and your refund will be delayed until they are ready with the software.

  1. You filed too late.

If you file late, your refund could get delayed simply because the IRS is swamped with all the other returns that were also filed at the last minute.

  1. Do you know your Social Security Number?

Accidently inputting your own SSN wrong, however, is a common error. People transpose numbers, and any mismatch in name and SSN will get flagged by the IRS.

  1. You put the wrong direct deposit information.

You’re waiting patiently for your refund only to realize that the account for the direct deposit was wrong. This actually happens more often than you may think, but, unfortunately, a simple mistake like this can delay a refund for a long time. If an electronic deposit is rejected, the IRS will mail a check, which will take longer.

  1. You filed by mail.

Even without any careless errors, typos, or transposed numbers, mailed tax returns still take longer than e-filed ones. In fact, e-filed tax returns typically take 3 weeks to process, whereas a paper-filed return can take up to 6 weeks. The reason for this? Everything must be entered into a computer and paper returns need to be entered by hand, which takes additional time.

For more on what may cause your refund to be delayed see our article here: https://www.e-file.com/help/refund-delays.php