While the IRS promises to have regular season tax returns and associated refunds processed within 21 days for the vast majority of filers, it does take quite a bit longer for them to process amended tax returns and associated refund payments.
As discussed below, many tax payers have been waiting months or years to get their amended return processed due to IRS backlogs and capacity constraints.
Covered in this Article:
How Can I Check My Amended Return Status?
It’s important to realize that the standard WMR or IRS2Go refund status checking tools from the IRS do not track amended tax return status’.
You need to instead use IRS tool, “Where’s My Amended Return” instead (WMAR). You can use this tool to check the status of your Amended Federal Tax Return (Form 1040-X), for this year and up to three prior years.
The WMAR tool is updated once a day, usually at night. So checking it multiple times a day won’t help.
You will need to provide your SSN, Date of birth and Zip code to use the tool.
This tool is normally updated weekly, starting 3 weeks after your mailed submission, in line with your IRS processing cycle. But can update more or less frequently depending on IRS actions.
Finally, its important to remember that filers can only submit up to three “accepted” Amended Returns. So if you have submitted more than these subsequent filings will get rejected and you won’t see any status for these on WMAR.
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Calling the IRS For Amended Return Status
If the amended return/refund status tool does not provide new updates for several weeks you should call the IRS. But official guidance is to only call the IRS to follow up on delayed amended return refund status’ after 12 weeks.
The IRS amended tax return (toll-free) number to call for checking status is 1-866-464-2050. Both the WMAR and IRS number have English and Spanish options.
Just be mindful that getting a live agent can require a few attempts and expect some long waits.
IRS Transcript for Amended Return Status and Refund Payment Date
In addition to using the WMAR tool, you can also see your official (and free) IRS Tax transcript for your amended return processing and refund payment.
This can provide useful insight, per the screenshot below, if the above methods are not providing you with updated or detailed enough information
As you can see above, transcript codes 971 and 977 on your tax transcript show that your amended return was received and is being processed by the IRS.
However you will need to wait till you see code 960 (appointed representative) which will be the date an IRS agent was assigned and starts reviewing/processing your amended return, which a lot of times is a highly manual process.
Like transaction codes for regular returns, you may see code 971 if a notice is issued around your return. This could require you at times to provide additional information to the IRS, for which instructions will be provided in the notice/letter.
Once the processing is completed by the IRS, you will see code 846 (refund issued) on your return. Note the date as well, as this will also be correlated to when you get your direct deposit or check. Generally you should receive your refund payment within 2 to 5 days of this date.
If you were due a refund, which was delayed due to IRS processing, you will also see the interest amount credited to your account. This may come as a separate payment to your refund.
Amended Return and Refund Delays Persist in 2022
Many filers are seeing still in process status in the WMAR tool reflecting the ongoing delays in the IRS for processing tax returns, which includes Amended returns from the 2020-2021 tax season.
The above message basically means the amendment hasn’t been processed by the IRS within the standard timeframe.
It does not necessarily mean there is an issue with your amended return. It’s just that the IRS has not got around to processing (and a lot of times it is a manual activity) your amended return.
If there are errors with your amended return, is incomplete or the IRS needs more verification information, they will send you a notice with additional details. See more IRS FAQs here on amended return processing.
How Long Will it Take to Get My Refund Payment?
Based on the latest tax season statistics, it is taking up to 6 to 8 months in some cases for the IRS to clear backlogs, which includes amended returns or those that require significant validation.
Unfortunately you cannot do much (even calling the IRS or taxpayer advocate service) to expedite this. You’ll just have to be patient and wait for IRS processing to commence.
Once this happens, you can review your free IRS transcript for more details and transaction codes (see above section on how to read this)
Amended Return Processing Schedule
Unlike the regular IRS refund processing schedule where refunds are processed within 3 weeks, you will have to wait up to 20 weeks or more for the IRS to process amended returns since they prioritize regular returns.
This has been exacerbated in recent years due to IRS backlogs and staffing shortages.
Below is a table showing an estimate of when refunds will be processed (standard schedule), assuming it has been accepted by the IRS.
2022-2023 Amended Tax Return and Refund Processing Schedule
| Tax Return Accepted by IRS (Week Ending) | Estimated Refund Payment Date via Direct Deposit (Status = Refund Sent) | Estimated Refund Payment Date via Paper Check |
|---|---|---|
| February 5, 2022 | June 25, 2022 | June 30, 2022 |
| February 12, 2022 | July 2, 2022 | July 7, 2022 |
| February 19, 2022 | July 9, 2022 | July 14, 2022 |
| February 26, 2022 | July 16, 2022 | July 21, 2022 |
| March 5, 2022 | July 23, 2022 | July 28, 2022 |
| March 12, 2022 | July 30, 2022 | August 4, 2022 |
| March 19, 2022 | August 6, 2022 | August 11, 2022 |
| March 26, 2022 | August 13, 2022 | August 18, 2022 |
| April 2, 2022 | August 20, 2022 | August 25, 2022 |
| April 9, 2022 | August 27, 2022 | September 1, 2022 |
| April 16, 2022 | September 3, 2022 | September 8, 2022 |
| April 23, 2022 | September 10, 2022 | September 15, 2022 |
| April 30, 2022 | September 17, 2022 | September 22, 2022 |
| May 7, 2022 | September 24, 2022 | September 29, 2022 |
| May 14, 2022 | October 1, 2022 | October 6, 2022 |
| May 21, 2022 | October 8, 2022 | October 13, 2022 |
| May 28, 2022 | October 15, 2022 | October 20, 2022 |
| June 4, 2022 | October 22, 2022 | October 27, 2022 |
| June 11, 2022 | October 29, 2022 | November 3, 2022 |
| June 18, 2022 | November 5, 2022 | November 10, 2022 |
| June 25, 2022 | November 12, 2022 | November 17, 2022 |
| July 2, 2022 | November 19, 2022 | November 24, 2022 |
| July 9, 2022 | November 26, 2022 | December 1, 2022 |
| July 16, 2022 | December 3, 2022 | December 8, 2022 |
| July 23, 2022 | December 10, 2022 | December 15, 2022 |
| July 30, 2022 | December 17, 2022 | December 22, 2022 |
| August 6, 2022 | December 24, 2022 | December 29, 2022 |
| August 13, 2022 | December 31, 2022 | January 5, 2023 |
| August 20, 2022 | January 7, 2023 | January 12, 2023 |
| August 27, 2022 | January 14, 2023 | January 19, 2023 |
| September 3, 2022 | January 21, 2023 | January 26, 2023 |
| September 10, 2022 | January 28, 2023 | February 2, 2023 |
| September 17, 2022 | February 4, 2023 | February 9, 2023 |
| September 24, 2022 | February 11, 2023 | February 16, 2023 |
| October 1, 2022 | February 18, 2023 | February 23, 2023 |
| October 8, 2022 | February 25, 2023 | March 2, 2023 |
| October 15, 2022 | March 4, 2023 | March 9, 2023 |
| October 22, 2022 | March 11, 2023 | March 16, 2023 |
| October 29, 2022 | March 18, 2023 | March 23, 2023 |
| November 5, 2022 | March 25, 2023 | March 30, 2023 |
| November 12, 2022 | April 1, 2023 | April 6, 2023 |
| November 19, 2022 | April 8, 2023 | April 13, 2023 |
| November 26, 2022 | April 15, 2023 | April 20, 2023 |
| December 3, 2022 | April 22, 2023 | April 27, 2023 |
| December 10, 2022 | April 29, 2023 | May 4, 2023 |
Note that amended return refund payments will only be done via check as the IRS does not allow direct deposit payments at this time.
Ok, got this message on website. Anyone else get this message that got their refund?
2020
INFO
Income Tax
Your Information Is Not Available at This Time
We are in the process of updating your account. These updates take at least 2 weeks to complete.
I got that for a few days before I got the updated transcript and then the check
Heah!!! Some hope I might get my refund soon!
Thanks Jen
Amended tax return refund arrived today 9/26 via check in the mail. I efiled my return and received a check im super happy.
Update: my amended return arrived today. I received a check in the mail. Although I efiled my return and my amended return, I didn’t get a direct deposit. I’m just happy it’s done.
That’s great news! Congratulations!
Would you please let us know the tax year, if you e-filed and the date?
This gives others some information of where they may be in the process,
Did your transcript change and tell you your money was on the way. Or did your check just show up without the website updating it? Just curious. Ty.
My transcript updated and showed a payment date of 9/21/2022. I was hoping it would be a direct deposit like others had received and was kinda frustrated that it wasn’t. Still, I decided to give it a few days to see what would happen. Check arrived today.
I’m glad you received yours! My transcript only updated once saying it went to processing on April 12th. No word sense. Hopefully sometime soon fingers crossed!
CORRECTION:
Make darn sure transfers in ARE NOT being labeled as income!
Apologizing for the confusion.
Has anyone received one ammended return but not the other? My transcript doesn’t state that they have even received my ammended return. When I check the where’s my refund status it says it was received 7/06/21. I am just very confused on why I received one and not the other when they were received on the same day. HELP!
My account balance on my transcript is showing $0 at the top but at the bottom of the transcript it’s showing a 291 code with a negative balance. No refund code though and I’m confused with all the codes and what is being taken or not since now my balance is almost $1000 less than what it was a few weeks ago. So am I getting a refund or not? I’m tired of hoping at this point and just want to know.
Are there any lawyers on this website? Seems to me that “we the people” have a great case for a class action lawsuit against the IRS. This is ridiculous that people including myself have been waiting this long for our refunds. I worked in payroll for 45 years, and if I didn’t pay people in a timely manner, I would have been not only fired, but legally responsible for not obeying the Federal and State laws.
I’m certain they will claim some sort of technicality, but generally speaking there is no statutory limit n processing. However, after 45 days from the filing deadline they must pay interest on the refund, and after six months you can sue them in the Court of Claims.
So after October 15th you can discuss with a tax attorney.
@Janice, but in this situation, we are all dealing with Amended Returns. Not sure if there is a statutory time for processing those.
There’s no statutory time on any return, that’s true, but the way I interpreted the law was based on the language I zeroed in on, and there was no differentiation between types of filings!
Granted, you have a valid point!, and I’m going to have to do a little more digging!!
Janice, Since my amended return and many others that have not received refund is based on the American Rescue Act past on 3/11/21 for the exclusion of Unemployment in 2020 is there any statutory time limit on the American Rescue Act law?
I have to review the language, but on a broad stroke basis, anyone who is involved, or any actions that take place with the parameters of a given Act, will not be subjected to any civil consequences outside of those parameters.
If we use this tax situation as an example, and understand, I have to review the law to be certain, but based on general language in prior Acts, this example is generally the case:
People filing within the dates of the Act would held harmless; likewise, those taking action..meaning the IRS, will also be held harmless.
I would bet that somewhere …buried in the boilerplate ..is something that will exempt IRS from any civil consequences relating to their delays.
That’s the best I can give you without pouring over the language.
Who is in charge of the IRS? Doesn’t he or she have any responsibility in realizing the impact to the American people of not responding to this massive need to not only Amendments and tax returns to individuals but businesses alike. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to their working the cases nor volume. Where is the work ethics here…..
Again, I worked for major corporations that were much more organized in receiving documentation and procedures of workloads. Had Service Now setup for communications and cases to be worked. Now that we the people have paid for an additional 80,000 IRS workers; they need to be held accountable for not answering phone calls, not sending out notices, nor entering data from paper forms. We all want answers instead of the usual script of well you know that COVID and IRS didn’t do their jobs for 6 months because offices were closed and look at your Transcripts every day when we cannot even descifer what the codes mean. I urge everyone to start writing Congress and State Legislatures and sign petiions to have the IRS overhauled. It is our money that is paying for their salaries.
The Secretary of Treasury is a cabinet position in the White House, like all cabinet positions these are political appointees. Some are very good, some are not.
The current SOT is Janet Yellen; she has a very impressive resume, she also feels that the current inflationary period is good for us.
While you’d like to be able to do so, You can’t begin to compare operations at a corporation to the federal government.
1. They aren’t accountable to anyone.
2. Many don’t care
3. There doesn’t seem to be any ramifications for people who don’t do their job.
As far as hiring staff: they’ve passed a bill authorizing the appropriation and expenditure of far too much money to hire far too many people, far too late to help any of us.
Two problems with this:
1. Good luck finding 80,000 people who want to work.
2. Good luck finding people willing to work for the IRS.
3. I guarantee you, the people they hire will not be those who are at the top of the educational ladder, if they’ve graduated at all.
4. They don’t expect to have even half of those numbers of people hired before the end of 2023.
There’s been several articles lately. Unfortunately, despite the dates, they pretty much say the same thing, and none of those things indicate a solution. I’m attaching links:
This one is the best:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/national-taxpayer-advocate-issues-midyear-report-to-congress-expresses-concern-about-continued-refund-delays-and-poor-taxpayer-service
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/business/irs-backlog.html
There is a CPA posting daily videos. He talks about how bad the IRS is, and how hiring new 87,000 agents will be used against those with less mean. He says the new agents will not have nowhere near the experience he as has, and won’t be getting a dollar from his clients in an audit. Also , while 87,000 are being hired, 55,000 will be retiring.
He’s not wrong. I’m a retired (x2) Accountant, CMA, CGFM.
This year I had 8-10 clients who had to submit paperwork that was ridiculous. One had to submit a copy of her husbands death certificate. He’s been dead since 1994.
Another had to send in a copy of her 10 year old’s birth certificate.
Another..get this..had to send in copies of his 1099’s to prove his withholding.you know, the ones that the irs already has!?
There’s some kind of weird stuff going on there, and these 87,000 aren’t coming in to be your friend.
The people they’ll be getting, at best, will be new college grads, and clerks. They’ll have no experience, precious little knowledge, and their jobs will be pure drudgery.
I doubt very seriously that the majority of these people will be used to take care of this mess. Most are going to be hired to pour over your bank records, Venmo, PayPal, and especially your crypto/bitcoin.
Pay very close attention to your financial institution”s actions. Are they getting new websites?, new apps?. Watch any transaction that has money being transferred through PayPal and Venmo, as well as internal transfers. Make darn sure they are labeling them as income.
If you are still with a bank? Get the H out of there!, unless it’s a small community bank. Get in with your best local credit union.
Everyone….every single person..should have as much cash as they can afford, stashed away in a safe at home. If you can buy into gold and silver, do so.
Also, start saving your receipts..every single one.
Janice, Thanks for sending the link to the website.
I not only worked for major corporations, I also worked in the Payroll Dept. for the 2010 Paper Census Bureau whereby there were different departments to accomplish the opening, scanning, reporting, and shredding of all the paper census forms. It was a 6 month project, and because we had experienced project managers and IT folks with good reporting skills, we finished the project on time and the census information for 2010 was on the President’s desk ON TIME for him to sign off. I don’t see the difference between the Census and the way the IRS should be conducting business. If they have bar codes on paper tax returns, at least the form could be tracked and communications to and from the owner of the paper form could be identified. I realize that it is a major undertaking, however, if they can implement Service Now which tracks cases then each IRS employee is assigned so many cases a day, they can widdle down the backlog. At one of my positions in a service center I was able to do upwards of 50 cases a day in a department of 30 people for 30,000 employees. I’m just saying there are ways to efficiently run the IRS, just like any other business.