10 Reasons Why You Haven’t Received Your Tax Refund

6. You forgot about something

Sending in an incomplete return can clearly slow down the receipt of your tax refund. For example, if you use paper forms to file your taxes, failing to sign them or omitting any of your personal information, such as your full name or Social Security number, are guaranteed to delay your refund.

If you have to forward additional information or paperwork to the IRS, it could add weeks or even months onto the processing time. E-filing can erase bags of error but it’s not foolproof, especially if you have a more complicated return.

Also, forgetting to add income information from a 1099 can be really problematic since the IRS will already have a copy on file. If the information you’ve provided doesn’t match up with what the Internal Revenue Service has because you overlooked it, they may decide to take a closer look at your return, which could mean a delay of your refund.