10 Reasons Why You Haven’t Received Your Tax Refund

If you’re one of those Americans who are asking themselves, “Where’s my refund?”, you should know that there are several things that can hold up the processing of your tax refund. Read on to discover the most common reasons for a delay.

1. Government shutdown

Sometimes, a government shutdown means that specific government agencies are actually operating at very low capacities. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is one such agency that could be affected.

As a matter of fact, the 2018-2019 government shutdown caused the Internal Revenue Service to have very limited operations for 35 days from Dec. 22, 2018 to Jan. 25, 2019. This is basically the same period of time that IRS typically begins accepting tax returns.

However, due to a shutdown, the IRS processes tax returns later than usual, especially as a bit of paperwork piles up while employees were furloughed. Also, if you filed with tax preparation software, remember that the returns may not be sent until the IRS is ready to accept them.

This happens because the software holds the return until the shutdown is over and the IRS starts to accept returns.