The IRS covid mess

[wildman49]

It's been more then 40 years since I had IRS problems. After H & R Block did my first return when I was 18 I have done my tax return since. That first year I did my return myself I sent it off to the IRS in March and waited for my $500 refund. After 2 months and no refund I call the IRS and they tell me they don't have it and to call back in 6 weeks. I call back and they said resend my return, I received my refund in AUG of that year. Back in the day $500 was a whole lot of money to me. Not happy from then on I made sure I owed the IRS every year since, by changing my withholding on my pay check and taking more money home each week.

Fast forward to 2021. I send out my 2019 taxes owe the IRS $800 plus, write the check send it out registered return receipt like every year. It was sent in July 2020 since the IRS moved dead line out 3 months. I thought everything was normal. Now 2021 in April I sent out my 2020 return, since my wife and I never got our $600 stimulus I added it to line 30 on the form and instead of owing we now have a $700 plus refund. We do not have our bank account on file with the IRS since we owed every year I just sent a check. So I did add the bank account to get the refund DD. All of this was done snail mail.

In May of this year I get a IRS letter wanting the $800 plus from my 2019 return plus penalty and interest. So I go to the bank get a copy of the cashed check and send it off. I get another letter a month later wanting even more P&I plus the $800 now in both our names. I send off 2 more copy's of the cashed check. Friday I get a 3rd letter more P&I plus the $800. Now they are considering seizing our income or bank account.

So as of yesterday I owed the IRS $800 plus and still waiting for my $700 plus 2020 refund.

This morning I start making calls to the IRS. After 3 hours on hold and 2 IRS agents, They found that my $800 plus was applied to my 2018 return and not my 2019 return. After a bit the agent said it should correct itself in a few weeks and she froze the account for 2 weeks to let things work and to stop the mailings. I then asked about my 2020 refund, she said it should be in our bank account on Thursday of this week with interest.

Will update on Friday if my first refund from the IRS in 40 plus years comes in.

I read that the IRS is super behind like 30 million 2020 returns still to process.

Life goes on!

[Tedlark]

Death and taxes wildman, death and taxes.....

[olds442jetaway]

Join the club Wildman. Manual return still not processed. Qualified for stimulus rebate based on 2020 numbers but not on 2019. Filed paper return as well as we always have. I just checked. They are behind 35 million returns now and are still working on 2019 returns. Instrustions required copies of w-2gs to be attached if tax was withheld. Since we had state taxes taken out, of course we filed a paper return.
A couple of years ago they screwed up really bad and thought the w-2Gs were self employment income from a business and were looking for self employment tax. Took months to get that straightened out and of course they were wrong and had to fix it. All it takes is for someone to hit one wrong button. I suspect that is what they did in both of our cases. I did register so we can look on line now at any details. Of course there are no details to look at since nothing has been processed. Quite incredible. Yet what happens if you get stopped and you are one day over on your car rgistration or current insurance card. Haven’t done that, but we both know the answer. No wonder people get fed up with government agencies.

[olds442jetaway]

PS....we filed certified mail too and it got there in 3 days. This also affects our state refund too. We were over withheld on the state, but I am sure the state won’t issue any refund until they can verify the Fed return has been processed. Incredible.

[OTABILL]

PS....we filed certified mail too and it got there in 3 days. This also affects our state refund too. We were over withheld on the state, but I am sure the state won’t issue any refund until they can verify the Fed return has been processed. Incredible.

Glad I live in AZ. My returns were filed electronically. State refund arrived in less than a week, Federal refund almost 4 months later.

[pokerpokerpoker]

I still haven't filed yet. The accountant that I used for 20 years sold her practice and some new people took it over. I dropped off my stuff in early April, now 5 months later they still haven't gotten to mine yet. I always claimed single zero, instead of married 4 - to get a big refund. I could use the 12k I'm owed. Maybe next month.

[olds442jetaway]

Good luck. Still nothing on mine

[OTABILL]

I was getting tired of not getting my refund. Called my congressman's office. The refund came the next day. Had to be coincidence since I never spoke to their staffer who handled IRS matters. Olds, I would call your congressman/congresswoman and have them look into what is holding up processing.

[olds442jetaway]

Bit of good news. I just checked again and at least mow the web site is acknowledging receipt of the return. Not processed. Only 4 1/2 months to even tell me this. You have got to be kidding me. Thanks for the tip OTB. If it isn’t processed soon, I will follow up as you did. In fact, I happen to know our local rep, but hope I don’t have to ask for help. At least by law, they have to pay us interest on any refund issued late. I think 3 percent. Better than .00000001 in the bank. Just very frustrating when you try and do everything yourself on time and by the book.