The United States taxes return campaign ended last April 18. As the campaign is now completely over, some people do not understand why they have not yet received their taxes refunds. It is very common to receive these refunds a few days after completing the return, but it seems that this year things are going a little slower, although not for everyone.
The problem starts last year. Apparently, there are still eight million 2010 tax returns to be processed. This means, therefore, that the delay is not current, but comes from last year. If you are in a tax backlog situation, you may want to find out that there is some interest you may receive for this reason.
Therefore, you should be on the lookout in case your tax return from previous years has not been processed. It appears that in the month of April there were about 15 million tax returns pending. Therefore, we can assure you that many people are waiting for their returns to be reviewed.
Interest on late tax returns
Bill Smith, the national director of tax technical services at CBIZ Inc. says that a large proportion of American citizens are completely unaware that the IRS can pay interest if they fall behind with their work. He further adds that “they probably don’t worry about it that much because it’s generally not a large figure.”
He also includes the statement that “the sooner they get their money from the government, the happier they will be.” So we are not talking about an overly large figure, quite the opposite, although it is a figure that belongs to those people who do not receive their taxes on time, so it is good to reclaim that money.
What is the interest rate?
The final interest rate is 4% when Hacienda is more than a month and a half late in tax refunds. As you can see, it is not much, but it can mean extra money received.
It is necessary to remark that, anyway, people prefer to receive their tax refunds on time instead of having an amount of interest. At the end of the day, receiving $100 more is not enough if the delay is too long.