NEW YORK - Nearly three-quarters of filers received a tax refund last year, with an average payment of about $2,800, the IRS said recently – a major influx of money for most households that many Americans depend on.The IRS is already warning of a "challenging" tax season that promises to bring complications and potential delays for taxpayers.
That's largely due to the deluge of unprocessed paper returns the agency is working its way through: At the end of December, the IRS had 6 million unprocessed individual returns – a significant increase from its usual backlog of about 1 million unprocessed returns around the beginning of tax season.There are some steps that taxpayers can take in order to get their money back faster.
Experts have urged taxpayers to file their tax returns as soon as possible, noting that individuals do not need previous returns in order to submit their 2021 returns.
Americans are encouraged to file electronically with direct deposit in order to avoid potential delays and receive their return within 21 days.Still, many taxpayers wind up waiting far longer than 21 days for their refund – and it's often due to simple math mistakes on their tax returns or identity theft delays.Eric Bronnenkant, head of tax at online financial adviser Betterment, said Americans should file their returns as soon as they're ready in order to help avoid tax fraud, because there's a "huge problem" where fraudsters find someone's Social Security number, illegally file a return on their behalf and claim the refund."The best way to mitigate someone illegally filing a return on your behalf is to file as soon as possible and to get ahead of the game," Bronnenkant said.There are fresh challenges facing the IRS – and individual.