American citizens who still haven’t received their tax refunds up to now, I mean the first half of April, can be found almost in every other family. It is said that the US population will go through 2025 weirder delay to their IRS refund, and many it’s a headache for the majority of them, across the whole country.
This is because of several problems in the service, such as the layoff of employees, not being able to cope with the workload, and simple mistakes in the process the taxpayers made. Even though IRS is making the effort to compensate, the majority of the taxpayers’ refunds may still take more weeks to arrive than it was expected, unfortunately.
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But do you know the whole story, the reasons for it, and are there any suggestions on how can one speed up the process of their refund?
Pink Slips for the IRS are the Beginnings of a Traffic Jam of Refunds
Can you tell us the number one factor influencing the slow pace of the process? Just at the beginning of this year, the IRS suffered immense layoffs. According to the data displayed on the source “Wikipedia’s federal layoff tracker”, up to 7,000 out of 100,000 talented people who had been part of that organization were laid off by the institution itself.
So, the dismissals took place during the month in which the maximum number of tax returns was being handled. Consequently, owing to the lack of staff, many refunds were not processed. Moreover, as it was stated on the website of the magazine, Barron’s, on April 14, 2025, more than 7,000 IRS employees have been reappointed after the jury ruled out the dismissals issued by the management as illegal.
Citizens have to be patient, still, as this is not the end of the story since it will take some time for the IRS to remove the backlog.
Waiting Times Will Be Even Longer Due to the Increase in Errors
The Barron’s
The errors are the following:
- Typing invalid Social Security numbers
- Mistakes in counting
- Income-related details that do not match
- Ways in which necessary forms were not filled out
To prevent the mistakes, taxpayers are strongly advised by the IRS to make sure everything is no less than perfect before submission. More hints and suggestions on the topic can be found from Taxpayer Advocate IRS.
IRS Tools Can Help—Unfortunately, Most People Never Use Them
Don’t worry if you are looking for your refund because the IRS offers a great tool: Where’s My Refund? You can find it on the IRS official site.
Have on hand:
- Your Social Security number or ITIN
- Your filing status
- Your exact refund amount
The Where’s My Refund? tool updates once a day and it lets you check receipt, processing or mailing out of your return.
Tax Scams Are on the Rise
The people at the IRS made a report not long ago, telling us that there had been an increase in the number of phone, email, and text scams by impersonators who claim to be from the IRS.
Actually, this is the rule: The IRS doesn’t contact by phone, email, or text so they will not ask you either for your personal or payment info. If you receive a message like this, report it right away.
How to Get Your Refund Faster
If you haven’t filed yet or want to make sure you don’t face delays, use these expert tips:
- File electronically, not by paper: Those who file on paper wait for a much longer time for their returns to be processed.
- Use direct deposit: You can get your money faster than if you wait for the check to arrive.
- Double-check your return: Mistakes may lead to automatic processing delays.
- Use online tools: Go to IRS.gov to follow up your refund and to change your information.
- File a tax return early next year: If you do your filing earlier, you won’t deal with the delays that usually occur at the end of the tax season, like the ones that were caused this April.
At the beginning of April 2025, there are still high chances of seeing the IRS tax refund delays becoming a very critical problem. If the rehiring of the staff laid off earlier surely will help in the next several weeks, it is anticipated that there are still many taxpayers not receiving their refunds. Under normal conditions, some of the refunds might reach you within 6 to 8 weeks; however, there are also cases in which they would be delivered even later.
If your wait is long, stay patient—yet stay updated. Stick to the official IRS website for news about your refund and don’t trust the scams that promise to pay off your money soon.
Don’t forget you can also stay updated with the tax world and still save a lot of money when you regularly check out our Tax & Finance section.
