(RoyalPatriot.com )- The IRS reported processing more than 140 million individual income tax returns, including more than 96 million refunds, for a total of more than $282 billion, with an average refund of $3,039, in its final report on filing season statistics for 2022.
While this percentage might give the impression that tax season is almost over, a sizable number of manual tax returns still need to be processed, and many taxpayers are still waiting for their refund. Ninety-seven percent of the total returns received have been processed.
The good news is that you can be due interest on your unprocessed tax return, so don’t panic until you need your refund.
Most electronically submitted forms with direct deposit refunds got their money within the typical 21-day processing time. Nevertheless, millions of people are still waiting months for their refunds.
The IRS must pay you interest for each additional day if you don’t get your refund within 45 days of filing (if you filed by the IRS tax deadline on April 18).
You will also be able to get an extra 1% more starting on July 1. Due to recent rate increases by the Federal Reserve, the 4 percent daily compound interest has climbed to 5 percent. IRS interest rates are calculated using the Fed’s rate plus three percentage points.
The Motley Fool estimates that in 2020, over 14 million taxpayers earned interest payments totaling $18 on average.
According to the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins’ most recent report to Congress, the IRS has a backlog of 8.2 million more tax forms than it had last year and is processing them slower.
As of May 14, the IRS still hadn’t processed 9.8 million individual tax forms since GOBankingRates’ previous report. This includes 7.4 million paper returns awaiting processing and 2.4 million returns needing to be corrected for errors. The sum also
included for newly filed 2021 returns as well as those that were already received in 2021.
You may always check the status of your return online or by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.
