IRS froze my tax refund

Dash man

Dash man

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We received a “Dear Taxpayer” letter from the IRS letting us know they’ve frozen our tax refund. They say there is nothing for us to do at this point. They say they are reviewing our return and verifying some of the information. They also say not to contact them for 60 days.
We’ve filed much more complicated returns than this 2025 return and always got any refund back within a couple of weeks. We always file electronically. The one year we made a legitimate error, we received a letter and had the entire thing resolved by now. I’ve never had a refund frozen before. It’s only a little more than $5k, so it’s not a big deal. But I don’t like being left in the dark with no reason.
Anyone else had this happen? I checked my Tax Return Transcript online, but no additional info.
 
They did that to us in 2010, refund was about 10k, took til December to get it resolved. Basically had to resubmit all my paperwork and they approved it. Only consolation was they paid pretty good interest.
 
They didn't "exactly" freeze our tax refund of about $4.5K a couple of years ago, but they made us go online to verify our identity, uploaded our DLs using ID.me or something like that. They notified us after about 4 weeks, and took another 8 weeks to deposit the money into our bank. They didn't pay us interest. :(
 
COcheesehead said:
It may be an identity theft precaution
Click to expand...
It could be, since we had a problem about 15 years ago. But we do use an IRS generated PIN number to file. It won’t let us e-file without it. Our address and direct deposit bank info has been the same for 25 years. But who knows with all the shenanigans going on these days. I’d rather they take a precaution than not.
 
Were you monitoring the processing of this return all this time? When did you figure out there was a problem?
 
I received an email from the IRS to log into my account to access a letter. The letter notified me my refund was frozen and our return was under review. I did not use a link in the email and went directly to irs.gov.
 
Dash Man - your post sounds familiar, here's where we are...

Remember the tax man?

We sure do! Our tax person filed electronically this year, per normal. NOT per normal we had a very large refund coming - like tens of thousands. Don't think I've had a refund in maybe ever years? Something to do with me overpaying our quarterlies a lot. We requested that the refund be applied...
www.early-retirement.org www.early-retirement.org
Our refund is supposed to hit the bank on 6/17, we filed on something like April 11th.
 
Totally normal. Happens to a small percentage of taxpayers every year. Not your fault and nothing you can do to speed up the process. It's just a waiting game now, but at least they do pay interest starting from 45 days after April 15. The interest is of course taxable and you'll get a 1099-INT from the Treasury next spring.

The ID verification letter is a separate thing and occasionally both the 60-day review and the ID verification hit on the same return, but usually not.

My observation has been that the review letter seems more likely if your refund is large-ish compared to your AGI, but the IRS doesn't say what triggers it, so that's just my guess. It could also be that people who are only expecting a couple hundred dollars back are less likely to tell me about it when their refund is held up. I do know the only sure way to prevent it is to owe money instead of getting a refund.
 
calmloki said:
Dash Man - your post sounds familiar, here's where we are...

Remember the tax man?

We sure do! Our tax person filed electronically this year, per normal. NOT per normal we had a very large refund coming - like tens of thousands. Don't think I've had a refund in maybe ever years? Something to do with me overpaying our quarterlies a lot. We requested that the refund be applied...
www.early-retirement.org www.early-retirement.org
Our refund is supposed to hit the bank on 6/17, we filed on something like April 11th.
Click to expand...
We filed on April 15. I guess I’ll just have to be patient. At least I don’t have to pay quarterly taxes this year. With no Roth conversions and with our charitable deductions, we may not owe any tax. Our SS and pension withholding should cover any tax we may end up paying.
 
Unaware of the previous threads on this, I recently started a thread with this identical issue. It's now more than 3 months waiting for my refund. DW and I went to the local IRS assistance office. Other than verifying that my filing is complete, they couldn't offer any further help. I contacted my Congressman, and MAYBE things will move qucker - they got a reply that my filing is now approved for refund. This was last week, so time will tell. FWIW a friend of mine is a CPA and told me that my delay sounds like an anti-fraud measure, and warned me I may be waiting a long time.
 
Had issue this year due to a large refund submitted electronically. Sent me a letter via smail with a QR code to verify my identity. Went through the process and received my refund a couple weeks later.
 
RetiredHappy said:
They didn't "exactly" freeze our tax refund of about $4.5K a couple of years ago, but they made us go online to verify our identity, uploaded our DLs using ID.me or something like that. They notified us after about 4 weeks, and took another 8 weeks to deposit the money into our bank. They didn't pay us interest. :(
Click to expand...
The same thing happened to me this year. I filed early on. I think it may have to do with ID verification to make sure you are who you say you are. There must be a lot of imposters out there.
 
Never had anything like this happen but I have dealt with the IRS on a number of occasions and the key word is, patience.
 
This year was our largest refund - by far. Thankfully, no problem. No letter. No delay.

Here is hoping they get this solved in the 60 days and get your refund to your bank! Best luck.
 
Unacceptable IMO. If they are going to freeze your refund, they should give you a specific reason(s) and not that they are verifying some of the info. Man, that could be anything. But what are you going to do. They hold all the cards.
 
I know it doesn't help the issue, but just wanted to note: I hate tax refunds... It means I've been giving the government an interest-free loan for the past year.... and I should be looking at ways to bring that figure closer to $0 next time.
 
cathy63 said:
Totally normal. H.....

My observation has been that the review letter seems more likely if your refund is large-ish compared to your AGI, but the IRS doesn't say what triggers it, so that's just my guess. It could also be that people who are only expecting a couple hundred dollars back are less likely to tell me about it when their refund is held up. I do know the only sure way to prevent it is to owe money instead of getting a refund.
Click to expand...

This was my case a few years ago. I had a mid-five figure refund that was delayed first for 60 days. Approaching that deadline I received a 2nd 60 day delay letter.

In the end, the refund was issued mid-July for a return filed end of February.

FWIW The amount of the refund was just shy of 15% of my AGI

Going forward I now either roll the refund forward to the following year's estimated taxes or don't receive a refund at all.

I now look to the tax transcripts available on my online IRS account to determine/confirm that my return has been processed by the IRS since I no longer receive refunds.

-gauss
 
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frank05 said:
Had issue this year due to a large refund submitted electronically. Sent me a letter via smail with a QR code to verify my identity. Went through the process and received my refund a couple weeks later.
Click to expand...
This was exactly my situation this year, but I'm still waiting. I'm due a large refund as I miscalculated taxes due from my RMD. Next tax filing I'll be sure to pay whatever the "safe harbor" amount will be, and write a check later.
 
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