4 ms·

I heard that this sometimes takes them much longer to process the returns that way. Has that been your experience? One time I reproduced the forms in a spreads

by fsmv 3y ago

I heard that this sometimes takes them much longer to process the returns that way. Has that been your experience? One time I reproduced the forms in a spreadsheet following the instructions and it wasn't much different from doing the online wizards. I would have liked to mail it in but I just paid to e-file anyway.

practicemaths 3y ago
My experience has been that it can be relatively faster. That is, the last time I filed online it took I think practically a year before they got to it (I think the year of the pandemic) I figure there's so few people filing by mail these days that they're able to process them faster than the huge amount of online filing. I'm guessing they're separate teams (online vs mail). However I have no idea. Regardless mailing has worked better for me the last couple years. Additionally I do not have to use the third party ID verify thing (might just be for accessing information on irs.gov) that I am just sure is going to have a breach and can not for the life of me fathom why our government (Federal) needs a private company to verify the identity of a citizen via government (State) resources.
- bombcar 3y ago
  The IRS just does some very simple checking and then mails your refund (or accepts your payment) - the actual processing/checking of the return can happen months if not years later.
- LamaOfRuin 3y ago
  My understanding is that it is generally under control now, but a couple years ago their processing of paper forms was in fact so backed up that the physical space was over capacity. There was a fair amount of news coverage of this, including photos of the cafeteria in one of their processing centers being packed with paper awaiting processing because there was nowhere else to put it. At one point they also basically declared paper processing bankruptcy and just told people if they had mailed something and were still waiting for a response to just send it again because the first one was probably a lost cause.
downut 3y ago
Now our family unit is not cash starved and can afford to wait, so in the past, before I started using the US Free Filing system I described in another comment, I always mailed in both US and AZ income tax forms. Sometimes it took a couple of months. The US form I think was pretty prompt occasionally. Now we're also not talking a lot of money. +- a couple of thousand, usually less. But you would have to compare apples to apples which would be the e-file fee vs. the compounded inflation rate for the time difference in receiving, presumably, your refund. I suspect it's a wash. You need to also factor in the ${turbotax} fee and/or the accountant, as well, if you don't actually fill out the forms yourself. Fun fact: We moved from AZ to GA last year, and dutifully filed in each state. I am pretty familiar with AZ due to filing our own taxes for most of 25 years, but GA is much more complex, verbose, and quite stupidly, even aggressively, vague. I produced a spreadsheet for my wife to evaluate that presented my first time interpretation of the GA partial residency filing. We're both B.S. ChE, she's an MS ChE, I'm a MS App. Math. So we know our numbers. The tables were low risk, low refund, medium risk, medium refund, high risk, high refund. She chose medium risk. Fine with me. Both AZ and GA refunded something like 50% higher than what I filed and expected. Some sort of emoji here.
rdiddly 3y ago
If you're looking for a fast turnaround I would recommend filing earlier in the period -- like as far in advance of April 15th as possible, i.e. as soon as you have all your supporting materials. As you get closer to April 15th, you are non-linearly further back in the queue. I can't really make an authoritative comparison of filing methods because I'm mostly a die-hard paper filer and have only ever e-filed maybe twice in my life at most. And it was long enough ago that I barely remember, and in fact never really cared, how fast my refund arrived. I embrace and savor the luxury of simplicity. When will my refund arrive? Answer: sound of one hand clapping. It's a reminder I put in the calendar for like, mid-June, to the effect of "Hey did I get my tax refund yet?" Usually the answer's, yep, and you dismiss the reminder. I can't be arsed (as they say in the UK) to be more interested in it than that.
ghaff 3y ago
Honestly, I’m rarely getting enough of a refund to care; I’m more commonly writing a check. In any case, I’m complicated enough I just outsource to an accountant. Yes it’s expensive but I’ve never had an issue even with very thick tax filings.
Anon4Now 3y ago
Yes - especially for my state returns here in Oregon. I am due a refund. I received a letter stating that they made an adjustment. They still haven't sent the refund.
Izkata 3y ago
I switched from paper to https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... in 2021, which doesn't cost anything, and the online version has consistently been processed a month or two faster than the paper version.

by fsmv 3y ago

practicemaths 3y ago

My experience has been that it can be relatively faster. That is, the last time I filed online it took I think practically a year before they got to it (I think the year of the pandemic) I figure there's so few people filing by mail these days that they're able to process them faster than the huge amount of online filing. I'm guessing they're separate teams (online vs mail). However I have no idea. Regardless mailing has worked better for me the last couple years. Additionally I do not have to use the third party ID verify thing (might just be for accessing information on irs.gov) that I am just sure is going to have a breach and can not for the life of me fathom why our government (Federal) needs a private company to verify the identity of a citizen via government (State) resources.

bombcar 3y ago
The IRS just does some very simple checking and then mails your refund (or accepts your payment) - the actual processing/checking of the return can happen months if not years later.
LamaOfRuin 3y ago
My understanding is that it is generally under control now, but a couple years ago their processing of paper forms was in fact so backed up that the physical space was over capacity. There was a fair amount of news coverage of this, including photos of the cafeteria in one of their processing centers being packed with paper awaiting processing because there was nowhere else to put it. At one point they also basically declared paper processing bankruptcy and just told people if they had mailed something and were still waiting for a response to just send it again because the first one was probably a lost cause.

downut 3y ago

Now our family unit is not cash starved and can afford to wait, so in the past, before I started using the US Free Filing system I described in another comment, I always mailed in both US and AZ income tax forms. Sometimes it took a couple of months. The US form I think was pretty prompt occasionally. Now we're also not talking a lot of money. +- a couple of thousand, usually less. But you would have to compare apples to apples which would be the e-file fee vs. the compounded inflation rate for the time difference in receiving, presumably, your refund. I suspect it's a wash. You need to also factor in the ${turbotax} fee and/or the accountant, as well, if you don't actually fill out the forms yourself. Fun fact: We moved from AZ to GA last year, and dutifully filed in each state. I am pretty familiar with AZ due to filing our own taxes for most of 25 years, but GA is much more complex, verbose, and quite stupidly, even aggressively, vague. I produced a spreadsheet for my wife to evaluate that presented my first time interpretation of the GA partial residency filing. We're both B.S. ChE, she's an MS ChE, I'm a MS App. Math. So we know our numbers. The tables were low risk, low refund, medium risk, medium refund, high risk, high refund. She chose medium risk. Fine with me. Both AZ and GA refunded something like 50% higher than what I filed and expected. Some sort of emoji here.

rdiddly 3y ago

If you're looking for a fast turnaround I would recommend filing earlier in the period -- like as far in advance of April 15th as possible, i.e. as soon as you have all your supporting materials. As you get closer to April 15th, you are non-linearly further back in the queue. I can't really make an authoritative comparison of filing methods because I'm mostly a die-hard paper filer and have only ever e-filed maybe twice in my life at most. And it was long enough ago that I barely remember, and in fact never really cared, how fast my refund arrived. I embrace and savor the luxury of simplicity. When will my refund arrive? Answer: sound of one hand clapping. It's a reminder I put in the calendar for like, mid-June, to the effect of "Hey did I get my tax refund yet?" Usually the answer's, yep, and you dismiss the reminder. I can't be arsed (as they say in the UK) to be more interested in it than that.

ghaff 3y ago

Honestly, I’m rarely getting enough of a refund to care; I’m more commonly writing a check. In any case, I’m complicated enough I just outsource to an accountant. Yes it’s expensive but I’ve never had an issue even with very thick tax filings.

Anon4Now 3y ago

Yes - especially for my state returns here in Oregon. I am due a refund. I received a letter stating that they made an adjustment. They still haven't sent the refund.

Izkata 3y ago

I switched from paper to https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... in 2021, which doesn't cost anything, and the online version has consistently been processed a month or two faster than the paper version.