If you are waiting on your tax refund, don't blame your income tax preparer or your tax software. The IRS has been fine-tuning their income tax processing systems and this is causing a delay of at least a week for some refunds.
In a bulletin distributed to tax professionals on January 26, 2012, the IRS announced that this tax season's new security measures included additional fraud screening before refunds are released. The bulletin specifically mentions a delay in tax refunds coming from returns that were filed electronically, which has benefit of getting a refund within 10 days and is the filing method preferred by the IRS. However, the IRS says that while many people will receive a refund in that time period, 90 percent of refunds are actually received in 21 days.
To get an idea of when to expect your tax refund, use the Where's My Refund tool online, but keep in mind that the result you get may be revised after you view it.
Early tax filers have been complaining about late refunds on Twitter, but fraud prevention needs to be a top priority at the IRS and the additional security measures are in their best interest. So, kudos to the IRS for keeping tax information safe, but the agency should stop implying that 10 days is the norm for depositing a refund unless that's the case for the majority of returns.
For more information, read the IRS refund status bulletin.
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Shelley Elmblad has been reviewing tax software as a consumer advocate for seven years. Follow Shelley on Twitter @textmonkey, on the Personal Finance Technology Facebook page, on Google+ or click the Subscribe button at the top of this page to receive email updates when a new article is published.
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