Good Question: Where’s my tax refund?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — This is something News10NBC’s Brennan Somers hears about daily — I did my taxes on time, so where is my money? When will it hit my bank account?

Somers has an answer, but you may not like it.

"It’s tough news, but very practical and understandable overall," local tax expert Jim Schnell from the firm Mengel Metgzer Barr told Somers.

There’s a crush on the IRS this tax season. Schnell says it’s a perfect storm.

The IRS had to shut down processing centers in the COVID-19 pandemic creating a backlog over the last year.

Then came an unprecedented amount of changes funneling through the IRS.

We had all those stimulus checks and adjustments with the expanded child tax credit.

By the end of the filing season, the National Taxpayer Advocate, a government watchdog, found some 35 million returns still waiting to be processed manually.

Those cover paper returns and others that got kicked out of the auto refund system because they were flagged for bad math. That could be someone making a mistake on credits or stimulus totals.

Schnell thinks we’re hitting a crescendo on delays, but that doesn’t mean everyone is getting their money next week or even next month.

"That will run its course over the next 30-120 days in most instances," Schnell explained. "They will get this cleaned up by the fall-early winter, but it could realistically be another one to four months where some folks are still waiting."

Tax professionals say to its credit, the IRS is working to make sure everyone maxes out. During these delays, your review could find some clarification and a refund bigger than what you were expecting once the math is squared away.