 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news IRS dispels new and common myths about tax refunds, which is more than what I typically do, which is simply misspell them as opposed to dispel them. So hopefully this will be a little bit more helpful key information available to help people. IRS 2022-80 April 12, 2022 Washington with the April 18 tax filing deadline closing in so it's not April 15. We got the April 18 because of the holiday or something that went on for most taxpayers. The Internal Revenue Service wants to dispel, not misspell, dispel some new and common myths about getting refund details or speeding up tax refunds. A number of these myths circulate on social media every tax season. So you got that spreading of the false news again, apparently with regards to the taxation and speeding up your tax refunds. If you do some of these things, they might actually delay the refund further as opposed to speeding them up. So you want to be careful with trying to prod the IRS because if you prod them, you'll probably confuse them. And if you confuse them, then they get slower and the refunds take longer, often times. So the IRS continues to process 2021 tax returns and deliver refunds. There's a link to that here with nine out of 10 refunds issued in less than 21 days. So that's again that number nine out of 10. That's interesting number. I'm not I'm not sure exactly how they come up with that number. It seems like it's got to be some kind of averaging thing. But in any case, as of the week ending April 1st, the IRS has sent out more than 63 million refunds worth over $204 billion. The average refund is $3226. Now that has to be an it says right here, that's an average so you can't really depend on your refund being $3226 because that's a whole lot of people and a lot of people are going to be under that threshold. A lot of people are going to be over that threshold. That 3226 is an average. There's also going to be most likely outliers kind of out there would weigh out on either end zero refund or owing money. I'm not sure if they take into consideration owing money people that owe money within their average. So again, grain of salt with that one huge grain of salt that you would take with the average such as that when trying to figure out what your actual refund would be probably more salt than actual, you know, other stuff like soup or whatever we're eating with this fact. So the IRS reminds taxpayers the easiest way to check on a refund is where's my refund. There's a link to that tool here and online tool available on irs.gov and through the IRS to go mobile app. There's a link to that here. Where's my refund provides taxpayers the same information and issue date information that IRS a sister's tax professionals have. So in other words, if you call the IRS and ask them about your refund, they're going to most likely look up the same tool with where's my refund providing you no added information than what you probably already looked up on the IRS website after having most likely waited for like 15 days to get a hold of somebody on the IRS, given the fact they're backed up on the whole times, which will probably be more frustrating than helpful. And therefore, you know, you might not want to do that if it doesn't help anything. You might want to just check the where's my refund tool and take the limited information that is provided with it. So where's my refund can can be used to check the status of tax return within 24 hours after a taxpayer receives their e file acceptance notification. The where's my refund tool is updated only once every 24 hours, usually overnight. So there's no need to check the status more than once a day. So if you or anybody you know has some kind of nervous twitch where they're checking the where was my refund tool every hour or something, you got to calm down, you got to calm them down. Stop that because it's not helping. It's just going to drive you crazy. You might check it maybe twice a day in the morning and in the evening because they check it or they fix it once a day or anything other than that is some kind of obsessive compulsion that you know you really should work on. So taxpayers should only call the IRS tax help hotline to talk to a representative if it has been more than 21 days since their tax return was e filed or more than six weeks since mailing their return. For those awaiting processing of a 2020 tax return, the IRS continues to make progress in this area and has taken numerous steps to help address these issue, including stopping the mailing of key notices and adding more IRS employees as part of surge teams to continue working tax returns as well as amended returns and correspondence from last year. So they're kind of backed up because of the COVID things, the social distancing, the government putting in those social distancing rules over the first people they have control over the government. So you would think the IRS would be, you know, most hard hit with those kind of rules that are seem to be kind of vaporizing out of to nothing all of a sudden. We know we don't hear about him at like at all anymore it seems like, but you know they're still backed up because of those items so seven common myths about tax refunds myth one, calling the IRS or visiting an IRS office speeds up a refund. So many taxpayers mistakenly believe the commonly held myth and it's a myth here they're saying that it's like it's kind of like, you know, Snow White or something that speaking with the IRS may phone or visiting in person at an IRS taxpayers assistance center will expedite their tax refund. The best way to check the status of a refund is online through the where's my refund tool at irs.gov or via that irs to go mobile app. So if you actually get somebody from the IRS again they're probably going to give you the same information you're going to you're going to listen to them typing into where's my refund tool and you're going to be like are you just doing the same thing that I did over here don't you have any more access to anything else other than that and they're going to be like you know after waiting 15 days to talk to him and that's going to be frustrating so you know you might want not you might not want to do that alternatively those without internet access can reach where's my refund by calling the automated refund hotline at now this is different than trying to talk to a person because it's an automated hotline so you might actually get a hold of it you know they should be able to get you to a robot and they can tell you the information that's 800-829-1954-800-829-1954. IRS taxpayer assistance centers operate by appointment and inquiring about a tax refund status does not expedite the process myth number two taxpayers need to wait for the 2020 return to be processed before filing the 2020 return or that will or that all refunds are delayed due to the number of 2020 returns the IRS still needs to process the reality is that taxpayers generally will not need to wait for the 2020 return to be fully processed to file their 2021 tax returns so so you might be thinking and this seems kind of logical but you might be thinking well I mean if my 2020 wasn't processed means you meaning you turned it in my last year tax return before the 2021 we're talking about now you turned it in but the IRS hasn't processed it yet then you don't have to wait until they process it before you file the 2021 you would think it might you know cause some issues with regards to their processing or how they're going to process it but you know maybe not they could do you know might they might not be any carryovers or connections between the two but they should file when they're ready so you're going to file your you can file 2020 and then 2021 right after each other and that means that they're not going to have been processed at that point in time but you could basically send them in and then and then it's into the mystery of the IRS to handle them when they handle them people with unprocessed 2020 tax returns should enter zero zero dollars for last year's AGI on their 2021 return when filing electronically so this is might what what be leading this is the thing that might be leading to this myth meaning when you file 2021 your tax software in order to verify you may ask for your prior year's AGI and if your prior year didn't process and you put in your prior year AGI it's not going to process the return you got to know the secret code just like when you played Nintendo back back in the day and you had to just hit up up down right left right a a a b or something like that same kind of thing here you got to know that in that instance even though you filed 2020 if it hasn't been processed the AGI is so you have to enter zero so that's probably a myth that is kind of well founded because you know people tried to file it and they couldn't and they waited till the tax return process so that the IRS have the AGI because they didn't know the secret code but now you do you enter zero there and you can file your 2021 return even though 2020 wasn't processed myth number three taxpayers can get a refund date by ordering a tax transcript ordering a tax transcript will not inform taxpayers of the filing of the timing of their tax refund nor will it speed up a refund being processed I don't know what caused this one like this just seems completely random I don't you're going to order a tax transcript and that's going to make the IRS go faster on your return like as if they have to pull the return up to the front of the pile to give out the transcript or something like that I don't know maybe if it was a paper processing thing but with the electronic age I don't that doesn't seem I don't know where that came from it's not like the last one which seems kind of logical so doesn't seem right to me taxpayers can use a transcript validate past income and tax filing status for mortgage student and small business loan applications and to help with tax preparation but the where's my refund tool is the fastest and most accurate way to check the status of a refund myth number four where's my refund must be wrong because there's no deposit date yet while the IRS issues most refunds in less than 21 days it's possible a refund may take longer for a variety of reasons so you know again that 21 days I don't know where I don't I don't see the calculation they're telling us 9 out of 10 or something like that I still I mean I haven't seen them actually calculated but that I don't depend on that per se but of course there's a variety of reasons where you could have an extension of time over 21 days you don't really want to be depending you don't want to have spent that money unless you have to spend it you know and before you get it typically unless you have to of course including when every turn is is incomplete or needs further review so if it's not complete or if it needs further review if something doesn't match up like you got something different on the W2 than the W2 that they have or different to 1099 than the 1099 they got from the issuer the employer or the issuer of the 1099 because they have that information that's going to cause a problem delays can be caused by simple errors like an incomplete return transposed numbers or when I hate when that happens or when attack but the computer helps with that anyways or when the tax return is affected by identity theft or fraud they wears my refund tool only updates data once a day usually overnight myth number five wears my refund must be wrong because a refund amount is less than expected they didn't give me the refund I told him I told him what that refund amount was and they gave me a smaller amount well the different factors can cause a tax refund to be larger or smaller than expected situations that may decrease a refund can include corrections to any recovery rebate credit or child tax credit amounts those are two items that we are new and causing a lot of problems because there's a prepayment component to it and they're new and they're refundable all these confusing kind of things so we can get those wrong sometimes when we or I you know it's possible they have been gotten wrong in the past on the calculation side so delinquent fraudulent taxes or state taxes so if there's any kind of fraud that takes place past due child support so the IRS will mail the taxpayer a letter of explanation if these adjustments are made so the IRS is going to say hey our records are different than what your records say here's the adjustment here's what we're sending out to you we gave you the adjusted amount which is kind of nice as opposed to holding onto the whole refund until you sort out the difference and then you can either agree with it or not try to go after the rest of the money or say yeah you're right IRS I'll accept your changes and move forward so the Department of Treasury's Bureau of the fiscal service may also send a letter if all or part of the taxpayer refund was used to pay certain financial obligations so you're not going to get the refund if you owe the IRS or possibly the state or possibly child support or something like that to somebody else and the IRS will just take your money and pay whoever you owe the money to in those instances in which case you're not going to get the money but you'll pay some of your debt for you which is good so myth number six calling a tax professional will provide a better refund date contacting a tax professional will not speed up the refund so most tax professionals can't just call the IRS and be like hey I've got seniority here people I want my client up on the top of the list I mean maybe some out there I mean if you're related to some politician out there I wouldn't doubt it you know but most tax professionals can't you know you can't really do that it's not really fair to kind of do that you wouldn't think you know it's kind of a first come first serve you would think kind of process so once the taxpayers sent it in you can verify the taxpayer can verify hey I sent it in the thing says it's sent in at this point in time they have received it and then it's up to the where's my refund tool unless you you know one of them you know kind of crooked politicians or whoever in the IRS they can get you to the top of the line right so the professionals cannot move up a refund date nor do they have access to any quote special in quote information that will provide a more accurate refund date the where's my refund tool provides taxpayers with the same accurate and timely information that a tax professional or even an IRS telephone assistant can access myth number seven getting a refund this year means there's no need to adjust tax withholding for 2022 well that's kind of a mess because you would think that basically your withholdings for 2022 would be based kind of like on the prior year but there's a whole host of problems of this these last couple years because one is that the tax law is completely different or not completely but there's huge differences in the tax law especially with the lower income side of things with regards to refundable credits in particular like the child tax credit the the stimulus payments the recovery rebate credit and the earned income credit so that in and of itself can hugely skew you know what what the taxes are going to be from year to year even if your income levels and your your work didn't change from year to year and people are also changing their work from year to year so you might be moving from job to job or you might be moving away from a job to doing gig work or something like that whatever you can do that wasn't closed down for the last two years or whatever and so that means that next so the next year then we can't really have that same consistency in either the work that we were doing or the the tax code itself which could both of those things can change kind of drastically that's on top of that you might have the normal life changing conditions like a marriage or new child or moving buying a home or something like that any of those conditions would would also mandate that to get your withholdings right you might want to redo the calculation kind of like redoing that W for but you really need tax software to do it because again a prior year tax law is going to be different than tax law most likely going forward possibly so you really need kind of software now they do have this tax withholding estimator on the IRS website which is getting more and more like basically tax software to help you to do a projection which is the only way that you can try to get the refunds for 2022 correct because your goal is to pay a little bit more than you owe in an as you go kind of payment system that's why they withhold money from the W to information and so on so that you can with you can avoid the sticks that the taxpayers wields and those sticks are called penalties and interest so you want to check into that for I think almost anyone should basically look into it in 2022 because of all those differences that we just talked about so in any case taxpayers should continually check their withholding and adjust accordingly adjusting tax withholding with an employer is easy as using the tax withholding estimator tool it's not that easy of it it's like an estimate but it's not that difficult but the tax an estimate is not really that easy but in any case check it out it's a cool tool anyways it can help taxpayers determine if they are withholding the right amount from their paycheck taxpayers to experience a life event like a marriage or divorce childbirth or adoption home purchase or major income change are encouraged to check their withholding so that's basically probably like most people at this point in time and I would include on that list anyone experiencing massive changes to the tax code from year to year which then caps it out to everybody in the United States at least so withholding taxes placed through the year so it's better to take this step as soon as possible so that's what you want to do it now so that you don't have to fix it at the end of the year which means you got to make extreme changes to the year withholdings you want the withholdings to be adjusted now so that you can kind of have it more consistent throughout the entire year starting earlier in the year or making the adjustment earlier if needed rather than later so there'll be links to that tool and links to all this other stuff here and there'll be a link to this in the description