Processing Delays for Certain Federal Returns this Filing Season

By Mark Castro, CPA
January 21, 2021

During this filing season there will be a delay in processing returns in the following circumstances:

• The taxpayer uses their 2019 earned income to calculate their 2020 EITC and/or additional child tax credit. The reason for the delay is that the IRS must verify that the amount of 2019 earned income that is reported on the 2020 return matches what was reported on their 2019 return.
• Claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2020 federal return.

  The reason for the delay in processing is that the IRS must look at their records to see that the amount of the economic impact payments that were sent to the taxpayer match the amount of credit reported on the 2020 return.

The length of the delay will depend on how many returns are going through this process at any one time.

Therefore, for these returns the refund will be delayed for some length of time depending on how long the matching process takes.