Posted on 03/09/2017 7:24:19 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
I filed my tax return in early February, the old fashioned way, by mail. I've done this for several years running with no problem.
I checked the status of the refund on the IRS.gov site, which indicated that my refund was to be direct deposited to my account on February 27. Well, that date came and went with no deposit to my account. I double-checked the routing and account numbers on my return, and they apparently were correct.
Last week, I checked the IRS site again, and now it read that my bank had rejected the deposit so they were planning to mail me the check to the address on the tax return. They said I had to wait until April 6 to contact them in the case it wasn't received. I called the bank, and they said they had no record of receiving and/or rejecting a direct deposit to my account.
My question is, is it possible that I was the victim of identity theft?
Ask Lerner or Comey
I do recall hearing that the IRS does not consider people filing tax returns with stolen IDs (illegal aliens for the most part) a problem at all and that they seemed to indicate that they won’t do anything about it.
Did you confirm which bank and which mailing address they were using?
It is possible yes, however unlikely.
Contact the IRS and talk to an agent. Explain that you are worried that there may be fraud involved. Verify the bank information and your address. Ask to send the check to the original banking information.
If the check has not already been sent, ask that it be sent USPS with at a minimum, a tracking number. Could also ask for informed deliver (email notification).
Document everything using ALT (activity, location (or contact) and time
Call your bank and ask why it was rejected
Happened to my daughter one year because they chose to put it in a single named account when the refund was for a married couple
Did you call your bank to see if an attempt was made to put in your account?
If the bank routing and account # are still correct on the IRS site, it does not seem like the deposit would have been rejected.
Can you tell from the IRS site whether the address they have is correct? If someone changed your address by identity theft, then the check may disappear.
No, they don’t have that information on the IRS site, and they strongly discourage contacting them before the date they say you can call.
We also ran into a problem one year, related to the names were not in the same order on the bank account as on the tax return, so this might be something to look into.
Bank denies any knowledge that it was received and/or rejected.
What’s a tax refund? I always pay on the 15th. If I get a refund must have screwed up somewhere.
The routing information that you provided may be incorrect. I’d check this first and this can be done quickly. Also, the bank may have a record of the attempted and failed transaction.
Anyway, if you gave the IRS the wrong information, then that is the issue and you have to wait for a physical check vs electronic deposit.... and the good news is that there no fraud.
I filed electronically on the 21st of January and I’m still waiting for my small refund. Turbo Tax said my return was accepted on the 24th and that I could expect a deposit in 5-21 days. Still waiting. Not a big deal, I’m a widower with no dependents so my tax rate is at a confiscatory level. I’ll just have to a while longer to buy that Whopper combo.
I always did the ‘paper check in the mail’ thing too. Usually took a month. Then last year the check never came. I called IRS and they cut another check. I think the first one was probably stolen in the mail. So the whole thing took about 2 1/2 months. This year I opted for direct deposit and had the money in 10 days. Needless to say, I’ll be doing direct deposit hence forward.
” they strongly discourage contacting them before the date they say you can call.”
Tough cookies, tell them to do their job.
Get contact names and dates, call them again and if still no satisfaction, contact your congressman via mail in writing. Send all correspondence return receipt requested.
It is YOUR money, and they are holding it against your will.
I would call your bank and ask what might cause them to reject such a deposit.
Upthread, someone commented that there might be a titling issue (single vs joint acct) with the incoming electronic transfer. I am a little skeptical about that because if the routing no and the acct number are proper, there is *A BIT* of tolerance for a SMALL misnaming in the acct title. Now if you have a name on the account “John and Jill Smith Grantees for John and Jill Trust dated 6/18/1998” and the wire comes in for “John and Jill Smith” I could see that being rejected.
I’d still talk with your banker and bring your tax return and the IRS form for automatic deposit — have your bank rep check all of the numbers. I bet that you have a wrong number on the form.
The IRS are sticklers for multiple checks being cashed. So if someone else cashed the first one and you cashed the second, you’d hear from the IRS.
This happened to my dad — he “lost” his refund check and requested a second one. A year later, while cleaning his house, we found the original check and cashed it not knowing that he had already cashed the second check. About a year later, we got the letter from the IRS.
I do all my banking online. My bank sends out checks for payments, not me. Recently sent one out to a new payee that never hit the account. Actually received the check back at my address....unable to deliver no such address. I must’ve looked at that thing 10 times and couldn’t figure out why. Laid it aside and a couple of weeks later when I was getting ready to pay some bills picked it up again. I had transposed 2 numbers in the address. lol
IRS processes what ever they receive.
Don’t really care who belongs to what
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