“Where’s My Refund?”: IRS Updates Status of Tax Refunds Inquiry

By Charles Ty on Feb 18, 2012 in United States, World • No comments

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) experienced a technical glitch on its “Where’s My Refund” calculator tool which crippled the ability of US tax payers to inquire about their tax refunds, as reported by various international news sites on February 16, 2012.

“Where’s My Refund” tool status
Image Credit: irs.gov

The IRS’ ‘Wheres My Refund’ tool gives tax filers an estimate on how long they can expect to wait to get their income tax refund. Typically, the IRS estimates it only takes about 10 days to a maximum of 21 days if a tax filer elect to receive his tax refund through direct deposit to his bank account.

The tax refund time is also sped up by using many of the free online tax filing services like TurboTax and the ‘Free File’ option on the IRS site.

However, the glitch at “Where’s My Refund” tool tells users there is no record of their tax return on file even when, in fact, the IRS has it and it is being processed on time.

According to IRS, the issue “relates to fine-tuning IRS systems to adjust for new safeguards put in place this tax season to provide stronger protection against refund fraud.”

In its official site, the IRS updates tax filers saying: “We are aware that some taxpayers who have filed electronically and received an acknowledgement from the IRS are concerned when they visit “Where’s My Refund” and are told that we have no information regarding their return. This is a temporary situation, and we expect to resolve the matter in a few days. At that time, taxpayers will be able to get an expected refund date when they visit “Where’s My Refund.”

IRS also admitted that while the “vast majority” of users are unaffected, there are some whose tax returns may be delayed because of the glitch.