We filed taxes exactly a week ago, and refund was in our bank this morning.

[Croney]

That's the fastest I can remember. They must be working 24/7 ahead of a threatened second shut-down.

[Squinch]

1. How did the refund compare to last year?

[at140]

3. My tax is lower this year

I never get a refund because I never want to pay IRS any sooner than I have to. If you get refunds, your withholding is too high.

[Croney]

4. Last year's was bigger than usual due to circumstances that only

TurboTax can explain (we over-withheld) so this year's is about half of that. I don't know how we were affected by the fake tax cut.

[at140]

2. Which means you gave IRS free loan

Better to keep money in your bank account with minimum tax withheld, and pay on April 15 or last legal day.

[Croney]

6. Yes, you're right, and in past years we've done that.

My husband just retired, and had to set up income accounts, but then decided to keep working, then retired for good. It was hard to keep track. Should be easy from now on.

[Recursion]

5. But if you have EITC or certain child credits, it will be held for four weeks

That caught a few of my friends off guard

[Croney]

7. That's too bad; they're the ones who need it most.

I guess our return is simple. As landlords, we used to itemize, but now TurboTax chooses the standard deduction as best. We're old and our kids are long gone.

[Recursion]

8. Yep. It's to "prevent fraud", which is complete BS

It's just to screw with poor people

[nitpicker]

12. There ARE a few cases of fraud

I've seen it in low-income tax clinics. The purpose of the delays is to give the computers time to cross-check to ensure, in the case of EITC, that children are being claimed on only one return. Unfortunately, this penalizes the vast honest majority who are counting on that money to pay off bills.

[nitpicker]

9. Slight correction

From the IRS:

(snip)
The IRS also notes that refunds, by law, cannot be issued before Feb. 15 for tax returns that claim the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit. This applies to the entire refund — even the portion not associated with the EITC and ACTC. While the IRS will process the EITC and ACTC returns when received, these refunds cannot be issued before Feb. 15. Similar to last year, the IRS expects the earliest EITC/ACTC related refunds to actually be available in taxpayer bank accounts or on debit cards starting on Feb. 27, 2019, if they chose direct deposit and there are no other issues with the tax return.

“Where’s My Refund?” ?on IRS.gov and the IRS2Go mobile app remain the best way to check the status of a refund. “Where’s My Refund?” will be updated with projected deposit dates for most early EITC and ACTC refund filers on Feb. 23, so those filers will not see a refund date on “Where's My Refund?” ?or through their software packages until then. The IRS, tax preparers and tax software will not have additional information on refund dates, so these filers should not contact or call about refunds before the end of February.

This law was changed to give the IRS more time to detect and prevent fraud. Even with the EITC and ACTC refunds and the additional security safeguards, the IRS still expects to issue more than nine out of 10 refunds in less than 21 days. However, it’s possible a particular tax return may require additional review and a refund could take longer. Even so, taxpayers and tax return preparers should file when they’re ready. For those who usually file early in the year and are ready to file a complete and accurate return, there is no need to wait to file.
(snip)

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-kicks-off-2019-tax-filing-season-as-tax-agency-reopens-use-irsgov-to-avoid-phone-delays

[Freddie]

10. Just checked, so is mine this AM!

DH needs new tires.
Got a nice refund as I over-withheld not knowing what the tax scam would do to us. I’m retired now and not having much come out of my pension so god knows what next year will bring.

[Croney]

11. Isn't that the truth!

Glad you got yours too.

[DeminPennswoods]

13. My bet is that a lot of simple tax returns

are automated. The IRS probably does "exception management" where if after the data is entered in their computer system, something on a return is outside of normal parameters, it will be reviewed more in depth by an agent.

[Croney]

14. Yep. Ours is certainly not the simplest, but

the "paper trail" is there and TurboTax makes sure it's at least free of math errors, so it might not have been seen by human eyes until the end.

[DeminPennswoods]

17. Maybe not at all

When I worked at DoD, we managed by "exception", that is if a document was properly filled out, assests were available and there were no manually placed restrictions, the request was automatically filled. We never even saw the document. At the time, DoD had sold airplanes to Iran who, like every other customer, sent their parts requests in in standard format. Even after they took the American hostages, we continued to fill their requirements because the documents came in in the right format and no one had thought to put a restriction on the incoming requests. Eventually, all the parts were stopped, but they were on the loading dock ready to board a ship bound for Iran!

The same thing was true of contracts under a certain dollar value, they were just automatically awarded, untouched by human hands.

[maryellen99]

15. We filed the day the shutdown ended (Friday the 26th)

It was accepted on the 28th and the refund was in the bank on Friday.

[Polybius]

16. I got my state refund today, before my federal

This is the first time that that's ever happened to me.