CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Millions of taxpayers are receiving some frustrating news from the IRS this week.
During a year when every dime counts, the agency says some tax refunds will be delayed another few months!
It’s bad news for more than 4 million taxpayers. They may have to wait till this fall to receive their tax refunds, according to the government.
Cristy Mack never waits to file her taxes, because she depends on her refund.
"We mailed it at the end of February,” she said.
But months later, Cristy and so many others still don't have their refund.
"A total of 18 weeks have gone by since we mailed in our return,” she said.
Cristy says she did what she and her husband do.
In mid-Februrary, long before the pandemic shutdown hit, she headed to the local post office and mailed their paper tax forms.
Now, it’s almost 6 months later.
"They say they aren't taking calls at the moment,,” she says when asked if she has tried calling the IRS.
The IRS’ National Taxpayer Advocate now says as many as 4.7 million people will have very late refunds.
That's because the agency furloughed thousands of workers and stopped processing paper returns for two months, creating a huge backlog.
Christy says she needs her refund badly.
“It means a lot,” she said. “Especially with everything going on, it means my husband's job they have been really slow."
We are passing her info along to the IRS, although it may not make a difference if her return is in a stack of thousands.
"When you rely on that as part of your income and it's not there, it does make things a little sketchy sometimes,” she said.
And with the IRS extending the tax deadline to July 15 this year, even more paper returns are about to be added to the stack.
If you are still waiting for your refund, all you can do is log on to the IRS website.
Go to the "where's my refund" section and cross your fingers, so you don’t waste your money