TEXAS, USA — Did you get the math right on your taxes? The Taxpayer Advocate at the IRS reports the agency has had to do about nine million math corrections on tax returns this year. That’s about 14 times as many mistakes as the year before.
Most of those math problems had to do with the pandemic economic stimulus payments. If you’re among the nine million who had errors on your return, you should get a "CP11" or "CP12" form notifying you.
Some complain their taxes are still being processed
Some filers have complained that their taxes have yet to be processed. Of course, the timing depends on when you filed. But if you mailed a return this year, or if your return requires review, the IRS says it has taken much longer than usual this year.
The Taxpayer Advocate says this tax filing season was a “perfect storm” because of the pandemic workplace challenges for the IRS, and those pandemic economic stimulus payments that complicated the taxes of many Americans.
As of this summer, the tax agency had 35 million returns set aside to be manually processed -- that’s many times more than normal.
Still waiting? You can call. But you still may not get through
If you are waiting for a refund, you can still check your status online. If you have questions about the status of your refund or your return, you can also try calling. But that has not worked out well for many Americans this time around.
According to a report on this year’s tax return processing, the IRS received a record 167,396,426 calls. Only 15,667,499 of those calls were answered, so just about 9% of callers got to speak to a live person.
Texas parents have gotten billions in advance child tax credit payments
Some happier tax news for many taxpayers: If you get the advance child tax credit payments, you should have just gotten the fourth installment. Those four payments combined have already put $6,250,001,000 into the pockets of Texas parents. That’s the second-most in the country, just behind California, where parents have received $6,941,939,000 in payments.
Reminder: Those payments continue through December, but they are deducted from the full child tax credit that you would receive when you file taxes in 2022.
Some parents have chosen to opt-out of the early payments, so they can save the full credit until next year. Here is some information about how and why someone might want to do that.