Tax refunds could be delayed due to a number of reasons and this could leave most taxpayers hapless as most taxpayers grope in the dark not having the slightest idea on what to do when they’re tax refunds are delayed. Even if such taxpayer is aware of what to do, they are ignorant of the right time to take action on their delayed tax refunds.
When should you take action on a delayed tax refund?
Ideally, You should check with the IRS if you’ve not received your refund within three weeks as the stipulated time for tax refund is 21 weeks ,anything more than this count’s automatically as a delay. Owing to this fact, You should start to look into your tax refunds if it takes longer than 21 days to materialize.
What to do if your Tax Refund is Delayed
Contact the IRS immediately
The first thing to do when your refund gets delayed is to contact the IRS. Contacting the IRS would help you identify the cause of the delay and give you to access professional advice in handling such issues. If  you notice your tax has been delayed, do not leave anything to chance and expect it to be handled by the IRS. Making this mistake could lead to further delay as the IRS has to deal with millions of filing and the delayed refund of one taxpayer is unlikely to get special treatment.
To contact the IRS, visit its website irs.gov or call any of these numbers 800-829-1040, 800-829-4933, 877-829-5500.
Identify the cause of the delay or loss of refund
Most times, delayed tax refunds are mostly the fault of the taxpayer and this can always be fixed with a careful review of an already filed tax refund. To this effect, it’s always useful to take a another look at your filed tax refunds when you notice its starting to take longer than it should. Reviewing filed tax refunds yourself helps to identify what went wrong and gives you an idea on how to fix it.
Work with the IRS to resolve the problem.
After you have identified why your tax has been delayed, it’s important for you to resolve it quickly and to do this you have to work with the IRS closely. How do you do this? Make sure you give every information asked of you and do as you’re directed by the professionals at the IRS so that your delay problems will be quickly resolved.
How to check the status of your tax refund
- To check the status of your refund, you can use the where’s my refund tool on the IRS website.
- Call the IRS and inquire about the status of your refund.
- Look for emails from the IRS or check for status updates on the IRS website.
If you filed by mail make sure you track the mail via the your mail delivery service. Additionally, It’s important that you use a mail delivery service that has a tracking system and confirmation service.