Your tax refund might be delayed this year, the IRS warns

When the Internal Revenue Service announced the opening of tax filing season>A challenging time

Tens of millions of taxpayers experienced prolonged delays in the processing of their returns last year, as the IRS continued to work through challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, like staffing shortages and tax law changes. Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, called calendar year 2021 "the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced."

One of the most common hiccups during processing last year was taxpayers claiming the Recovery Rebate Credit in order to receive their stimulus money. Even if taxpayers e-file, these errors need to be manually reviewed by an IRS employee.

Collins expects similar issues this year, with the third stimulus payment and enhanced child tax credits to take into account.