Where's My IRS Refund 2021 - YouTube

Yo what's going on everybody? My name is Ryan. I'm  a CPA and today I'm going to be telling you what's  

the deal with your refunds for the year 2021.  Many of you probably have filed your taxes earlier  

in the year and have not received your refund  yet. You've probably used the check my refund  

tool on the IRS's website and nothing shows up.  So in this video I'm going to explain maybe what's  

going on. Maybe what you can do and hopefully  it's helpful to you okay. So when I say the check  

my refund tool I'll put a link in the description  below on what I'm talking about. It's basically a  

tool that the IRS has for you to check the status  of where your refund is. Basically what you need  

is your social security number, your filing  status, and your refund amount, your expected  

refund amount. Now if you're filing jointly  you want to use the primary taxpayers social  

security number okay, if you're filing married  jointly. Now what this tool does it tells you,  

you know, whether your return has been processed.  You know how far along the refund process is  

and when you should be expecting your refund.  If you use this tool correctly, and you don't,  

and you get a page that says you that the IRS has  no status on your refund or they can't find it  

then a couple things could be happening here. Make  sure that your your tax return was actually filed  

and accepted okay. The next thing, another thing  that could be happening is your refund amount  

could have changed and that's uh I'll go, I'll  go through that a little later in this video  

why that would happen. And then third the IRS  might simply just have not processed your tax  

return yet because they are pretty behind. Now  I'm going to talk a little bit more about that,  

the not processed part. The IRS has been backed  up or delayed since 2020 due to the pandemic.  

You know the offices had to shut down for it  seemed like a month and a half maybe two months  

and then slowly start working back in their  operations from remote operations. And remote  

operations are sometimes not as efficient as being  in the office and other times they are but that's  

that's another subject for another day. But either  way the IRS was behind and they still are. I  

believe they are still actually processing refunds  from the 2020 tax year which is really unfortunate  

but due to covid that's, that has set the IRS back  quite a bit. And so they are still working on that  

as well as trying to process the 20, the 2021  tax refunds. And by 2021 I just mean you know  

the refunds that you filed this year in 2021. Yeah  we're given that there's the, the delays from last  

year going through and carrying on to this year  and that has been leading to many more delays  

for this year, for the 2020 tax year and that  could be one reason why your return is not  

processed yet. Other reasons could be like, you  know, some tax returns are just easier to process.  

Some of them can be processed by computers,  machines, and whatnot. And there are some  

returns that might need some human processing  and human calculations just to verify.  

And in some returns they might just choose humans  to process, just spot check, and spot choosing  

them to make sure that they're accurate okay. So  those are some reasons why they're delayed. Now  

what are some reasons that your tax return or your  tax refund amounts could have changed? Well to get  

into that let's talk about the new tax law changes  that happened in 2021 for the 2020 tax year.  

So first you have the unemployment insurance  being non-taxable, part of it being non-taxable.  

And then you have the stimulus payments  that you received last year and this year  

that are affecting your refund amount and  the the tax return process okay. So if you  

did not receive a stimulus payment last year  or the second stimulus payment early this year  

then you should be claiming that on your  tax return because they are advanced tax  

credits. You know they were advanced to you and  if you didn't receive them in advance, then you  

should be able to get them on this tax return. So  that's one thing that's causing some delays here  

is because the IRS has to reconcile what was sent  out versus what was reported on the tax return.  

And there's little nuances like what if the, what  if the stimulus payments were sent out to you  

but you never cashed the check. Or what  if the debit card was sent out to you  

but you never received it. So in their  system they see that they sent it out to you  

but maybe you claimed it on your tax  return as if you did not receive it.  

So now they have to figure out what's going on  there. So those, that kind of thing is causing  

delays in that sense. And now the unemployment  insurance change that changed in the middle of  

tax season. That means some people already filed  their tax returns before the change happened so  

the IRS said that they're going to take care  of those people on their own. They, you don't  

have to file an amended return okay. But these,  this also causes the IRS to have to reconcile,  

you know, what was reported in unemployment  versus what's not taxable. There's also income  

limitations there so if you made over $150,000  as a married couple you don't qualify for the  

unemployment income exclusion. So the, these are  like middle of tax season changes that happened  

that could cause further delays  in processing in your tax return.  

So yeah to me, that makes sense why for some  people it's taking much longer for the tax returns  

to be processed all right. So now that leads me  to why your refund amount could have changed. So  

let's say you, you didn't receive a stimulus  payments in 2020 or early 2021. And let's say you  

didn't report it on your tax return. So maybe you  are due a bigger refund than you were expecting.  

That's when your refund amount could have  changed. Or if you received a partial stimulus  

payment in 2020 but then when you file your  2020 tax return, you are due a greater refund,  

or whatnot, then that would cause  your refund amount to change as well.  

If you owed taxes in prior years, that would  cause a refund amount to change because  

those taxes are still due. So if you receive a  tax refund in the 2020 year then they're going  

to apply that to your prior year's tax liability  to satisfy that okay. Now another layer on top  

of that is that the IRS said they don't want to  apply your stimulus payments to prior year taxes.  

So that means they have to break out your stimulus  payment amounts versus your tax refund amounts.  

And if you owe taxes in prior years they're just  going to apply your tax refund amount to those  

prior years and then they're going to send your  stimulus payment to you as a tax credit. So that's  

how the IRS is splitting that up as well. Which  you know, all these moving parts put together,  

you can really see why it might be taking longer  for the IRS to get you your refund or to process  

your tax return fully. Now if your tax refund  amount has changed, that would cause the IRS  

check your refund status tool to actually not pull  up your refund because let's say you're expecting  

a $3,000 refund so you put that into the tool  it shows up as "status not found". Well if your  

refund actually changed to $2,000 then using  $3,000 as the amount for the check the status  

is actually incorrect now. So you know, if your  refund amount changed you won't really know that.  

The IRS might send you a letter or notice to  tell you that but in, in this day and age,  

you know with the pandemic, it seems like actions  are taking place much quicker than notices  

are going out of the IRS system. So basically  yeah, if your, if your refund amount changed  

that would that would throw off your check my  status, check my refund status tool and you won't  

be able to see your actual refund status unless  somehow you knew your exact refund amount. So  

with the pandemic delays in the 2020 year, plus  the stimulus payments that have to be reconciled,  

plus the changes mid tax season in 2021  - the unemployment insurance mainly,  

plus you know, if you owed prior year taxes  that the IRS has to apply some of your refund to  

but not all of it, it's it's really easy to see  why your tax refund and your tax return could be  

delayed in processing. Now what can you do about  this? Obviously the first thing you can do is try  

calling the IRS. I'll leave their phone number  for individual taxpayers in the description.  

I would definitely hold off until after June  15th to call them because you know although  

tax season is over, there are still actually some  states that have, that are still in tax season.  

States that have gone through like winter storm  delays you know, Texas uh a bunch of other states  

their deadline, their IRS deadline is now June  14th. So hold off on calling the IRS until after  

June 14th because you know they're still I bet  their phone lines are still very busy. You might  

have to wait several hours at this point. I mean  even if even, if you call after the 15th you might  

still have to wait several hours but you'll have  a better chance of getting through. The best thing  

you can do is call them to find out what's going  on. If you checked your where's my refund tool  

and nothing comes up, then give them a call okay.  The other thing you can do is hire a professional  

like us or like your local CPA firm, whoever you  are using with, to help you with your taxes, give  

them a call to call the IRS for you because they  can usually get through much quicker than you can  

through their special practitioner line. So in  order to do that um you know, it might not be  

worth your money, and if your refund is only a few  hundred bucks but if you're expecting like several  

thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands  of dollars of a refund, then definitely call.  

You know hire a professional to help you figure  that out at least get a game plan on what's going  

on all right. So that's all I've got for today.  Thanks for joining me and uh if you found this  

video helpful, please do consider subscribing  to my channel and smashing that like button.  

You know, share this video with your friends who  might have the same issue or who you might think  

also would find it helpful. I would greatly  appreciate it okay. So take care for now stay  

safe and I'll see you next time.