Many people can expect a smaller tax return this year, thanks to changes to the Internal Revenue Service withholding structure. Rhode Island tax agent Robert Haskell said for many, the IRS cut the amount they’re taking out of paychecks up front.
“You know, your refund, while it might be smaller than years past, you were actually getting more in your check throughout the year,” Haskell explained. “So if their withholding went down, say $500, they basically got $10 a week every week.”
The average refund for early filers was down 8.4 percent from last year, according to the IRS.
Taxpayers may also have long phone waits to get their questions answered by an IRS representative.
In a recent report, the National Taxpayer Advocate’s found the five-week government shutdown added to an existing backlog of paperwork at the IRS. At the end of the shutdown, the IRS had 5 million pieces of mail waiting to be processed. After the shutdown, average phone wait times more than doubled from the same period last year. And week later, the wait times had only slightly improved, according to the report.
But local tax agent Robert Haskell says he’s only seeing delays for two programs: the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
“They are delayed because [the IRS] wants to verify the information. So it’s nothing really regarding the government shutdown, it’s just that they’re trying to do a little more to make sure that people who are claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit are actually due those credits.”
According to the report, the IRS still had 80,000 Earned Income Tax Credit audits from last year to process as of January.
