I have always filed my taxes on paper. I know, that makes me weird, but my wife and I have had numerous 1099 incomes over the years, and it was just easier to do it that way. This past year we did not have that, but I did paper anyway just because it's what I was used to and we've never had any problems in the past.

This year I filed the end of January, and I still haven't heard a thing. I keep checking the IRS "Where's my refund" website, and it has no information. I created an online account (WHAT A PITA!!!!), and there's no information in there, either. I've read a few places online (but nowhere officially from the IRS) that they are 6-9 months behind this year on processing paper returns...not sure what their excuse for that is, or why this year is different from any other in that regard, but it's the government so incompetence is expected.

I'm at a a point where I'm not even sure they got my return, and am not sure how to proceed. My wife mailed it certified mail, but lost the receipt, so our bad there. I've tried calling them numerous times, but can't get through to a human. I spent 45 minutes on the phone yesterday fighting my way though their stupid automated menus, and either ended up with an automated response giving me the same useless information from the website, or when I managed to manipulate the prompts to force direction to a human, it would ring a few times then get a recording telling me they were too busy to take my call and it would hang up on me.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. All I want is some confirmation from the IRS that they're actually that far behind and if I just wait eventually they'll get around to sending me a check......or if they think it got lost, then some direction about what I need to do to refile without causing some colossal foul-up if my original form eventually goes through. But I can't even get anybody at that useless organization to pick up a phone.

Anybody else having a similar issue, or have any ideas how to navigate the bureaucracy to get an actual response?

There have been numerous discussions on this matter. Use the Sigforum search function. Good luck.

From May 10th

IRS Has Millions of Delayed Tax Returns, and Is Paying Billions in Interest to Those Waiting Tax agency now pays 4% interest to waiting individual filing

DO not bother calling the IRS. Limited offices were open last weekend with a 5 and a half hour wait.

I am a retired CPA that keeps his license current & I file about 100 returns a year. IRS keeps getting worse every year. In 2021, IRS disposed of 30 million 1099's & other information documents without entering them into the system. You may never be able to get in touch with IRS, & if you do it could delay your refund even longer as your return could get flagged. Since you are getting a refund you have until April 15 2025 to file without penalty. Wait about a year & send a certified letter with a copy of the return you filed. Do not let IRS talk you into getting a PIN as PIN's cause more problems than they solve.

I’m still waiting on my 2020 refund…

Unfortunately, I paid in a little too much in 2021 and am now on the clock for THAT refund as well.

Not big money for either of them, but almost $4k between the two years (2020 was a complicated year due to selling some property, for years before that I had nailed owing +/-$500).

So you’re in good company!

I also do paper returns. I normally file in the last week or two. Last year my refund did not come until November. I have not received mine this year yet, maybe it will be Chistmas money isn't all that bad this year the interest rate they have to pay us for getting back to us later will almost keep up with inflation.

I do paper and try to structure estimated payments to always owe the government. 2020’s Covid payment messed that up as they didn’t deposit anything for the last payment and I had to claim it via my tax return, so ended up with about a $2800 refund. Filed 3/21 and got refund (with interest) around 2/22. Couldn’t get any status on my refund on IRS website. Just waited and it finally showed up.

I won't be much help to you.

I used to love paper. Kept records. I had several filing cabinets that I kept for active and archived files. Then in 2017 as I thought I was going to be itinerant, I started digitizing my records. I even scanned my tax records going all the way back to 1987.

I digitize everything and file them in directory folders with several mirrors and backups.

It is so much easier as I don't lose anything and can search very easily.

I also file returns electronically ever since it became available.

I agree about the paper.... did it for years until I turned all of this over to my wife.

I've worked for myself for 39 years and I have one question...

What is this about a refund check... I've never even come close to getting one of those....?

Of course I never once paid estimated taxes... that always seems a rip off to me.

Well thanks guys, that makes me feel a little better. At least its not just us.

quote:

What is this about a refund check... I've never even come close to getting one of those....?

We have 4 kids and one income, so refunds are a fact of life for us, at least until they get older and move out.

I had to file for an extension last year and sent it in 10/21. I have yet to see my refund.

Let's see. Paper filing is backed up months, if not years. What to do, what to do. Hmm. Maybe start filing electronically? Naw, I've always used paper.

On a related subject, ATF is using e-file for tax stamps for suppressors now. The wait time has been cut from 14 months to 2 months, and soon will be down to 1 month.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/i...sjhp_columnists_pos2

The Saturday I Spent Five-and-a-Half Hours in Line Waiting for the IRS

There has to be a better way to help taxpayers with their problems

By Laura Saunders
May 20, 2022 5:30am

In more than a few columns, I’ve written about customer-service problems at the Internal Revenue Service. Now I know firsthand just how bad they can be.

On Saturday, May 14, I waited 5 ½ hours for a meeting with a courteous and helpful IRS employee. I was at the agency’s Taxpayer Assistance Center in Harlem, one of two New York City IRS offices open that day—along with three dozen others across the country—for walk-in visits. No more walk-in days at any IRS office are scheduled for the rest of 2022.

I arrived at 8:30 a.m., because the hours were 9 to 4 and I wanted to be near the front of the line. Silly me: The line had started forming by 6:30, and by my count I was No. 48. By 9 a.m., the line had about 100 people and stretched a full city block outside the building. Some people brought their children.

There was no place to sit or even lean other than the ledge of a storefront and low crossbars of scaffolding, so I envied the smart person who had brought a red folding beach chair. I congratulated another who persuaded workers at the Shop Fair market next to us to lend a plastic milk crate so people could take turns sitting down.

My fellow taxpayers and I hoped the line would move quickly when the IRS office opened at 9. These hopes were dashed when a supervisor appeared and said—in answer to my question—that the waiting room had 12 seats and there were five IRS employees helping taxpayers.

And so we waited and waited and waited. When three people would come out after a long interval, three more could go in. At times the crowd grew restive and fights nearly broke out when someone tried to jump the line, which was a temptation because there was no cordon.

All morning, workers pushed rattling pallets of hot-dog rolls, cinnamon bread and other goods through our line and into the Shop Fair for delivery. Around noon, someone pulling a wagon loaded with cold water and soda came by: “It’s hot out here, waiting for the IRS. Ice or no ice, it’s all the same price.” A few people bought drinks while others, better prepared, got out sandwiches. Without an available bathroom, I was afraid to eat or drink anything.

Talking to fellow taxpayers while we waited, I learned a lot. While our problems varied, each person was as dogged as I was. A payroll-records worker told me she had made a 1 ½-hour trip by train from a New York City exurb because she hadn’t gotten her 2019 refund, while a nearby man said he was missing his 2018 refund. (Most people I spoke with wouldn’t give their last names, and some wouldn’t give one at all.)

A chef needed to fix a glitch that omitted key parts of her e-filed 2021 return from IRS records and understated what she owed. One man said he was due a refund based on a letter he didn’t have because “it went through the washing machine.”

Several, like me, needed to verify their identities so the IRS would release 2021 refunds. The agency wants taxpayers to verify IDs online, but that involves turning over personal records to an outside contractor that holds them for several years or longer, which bothers some people.

I also learned that as different as we were, our problems shared a common feature: None of us, despite mighty efforts, had been able to reach the IRS by phone.

“The letters tell you to call on the phone, but then you can’t get through. They don’t want to talk to us on the phone!” said an angry woman, as others agreed.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, who heads an independent group within the IRS that safeguards taxpayer rights, confirms that recently only about one in 10 callers to the agency has gotten through. Many others aren’t even put on hold but are cut off in a “courtesy disconnect.” That’s what happened with my many calls to the IRS before my in-person visit.

Two people in line complained that they had gone to that IRS office during the week and—although the waiting room was empty—were turned away because they didn’t have appointments. But when they called for appointments, they couldn’t get through. There’s no online option for making an appointment.

In response, the agency said it allows walk-ins during the week in hardship cases, and that even when waiting rooms appear empty, employees are working with taxpayers. It added that it’s implementing customer call-back and chatbot options.

At 12:45 I was finally allowed into the building, where I stood in line again until I was given a number and a seat at 12:59, 4 ½ hours after arriving. It took nearly another hour to be helped, but at least I was sitting down.

Once I was face to face with the IRS employee, things went quickly. Within 10 minutes she had verified my identity using documents I provided. No, she said, my identity hadn’t been stolen; the agency just does these checks sometimes.

Most other taxpayers I spoke with as they left said their problems were solved. The chef said her IRS helper was “brilliant” at dealing with her unusual problem.

The only remaining downside, it seemed, was that my refund won’t come for up to 9 weeks. By the time I heard this, I was so tired, relieved and hungry that I didn’t care. In my rush to leave, I even broke my own first rule of dealing with the IRS: get and keep paper confirmations of all important matters.

Then the next day, I received an email from the chef saying she had just tested positive for Covid. (Talking recipes, we had exchanged emails.) I’ve tested negative since, but there’s no way to know whether others caught the virus. Her diagnosis highlights yet another hazard of the IRS’s inability to answer the phone—especially for the elderly and the immunocompromised.

IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig and Ms. Collins both have said the IRS’s customer-service problems are largely due to a lack of funding for staffing. I devoutly hope Congress will see to it that the IRS can answer its phones—so other taxpayers don’t face what I did.

Write to Laura Saunders at laura.saunders@wsj.com

Appeared in the May 21, 2022, print edition as 'Got a Problem With the IRS? Take a Number.'

I've been filing electronically for a few years now (ever since Oregon made the formerly pretty simple form insanely complicated), and my refunds have been coming back pretty fast, federal and state both. Last year it took about 10 days, and this year I had them both back in 3 days. I filed in late March.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
I've been filing electronically for a few years now (ever since Oregon made the formerly pretty simple form insanely complicated), and my refunds have been coming back pretty fast, federal and state both. Last year it took about 10 days, and this year I had them both back in 3 days. I filed in late March.

I was filing electronically until the IRS decided to take a double payment for my owed taxes. Took quite a bit to get the money back so I'm back to paper filing.

It really stinks that the IRS is so backlogged and folks are not getting their refunds quickly. But as mentioned above, you will get interest.


Suggestions (if it makes a difference, I am a CPA)
Don't file a second return without first requesting a transcript to see if your return was received. There are two ways to get a transcript. One is to call the IRS (be prepared for a long wait) or go through the process of setting up an online account. (google for instructions)

If you continue to paper file, use certified mail with return receipt. That way you have proof you mailed and proof it was received.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

I was filing electronically until the IRS decided to take a double payment for my owed taxes. Took quite a bit to get the money back so I'm back to paper filing.

Wow, I've never heard of the IRS drafting an account twice.

Consider one of two options. File electronically but mail the payment. File electronically but then go online to make the payment.

As I mentioned above, if you paper file, it is best if you get proof of filing (i.e. Certified mail with return receipt)

quote:

Originally posted by SR:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

I was filing electronically until the IRS decided to take a double payment for my owed taxes. Took quite a bit to get the money back so I'm back to paper filing.

Wow, I've never heard of the IRS drafting an account twice.

Consider one of two options. File electronically but mail the payment. File electronically but then go online to make the payment.

As I mentioned above, if you paper file, it is best if you get proof of filing (i.e. Certified mail with return receipt)

I've never sent one certified mail and I've been filing income tax returns by mail since 1963. Never had one disappear and not show up either.

I'll continue to take my chances on snail mail.

Did the paper filing last year.

It took so long, I used the refund to pay property taxes.

So I was reading your post and my wife starts reading an article to me so here it is secretly destroyed 30 million paper filed documents.

IRS