PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

When did you file online? I filed my taxes around Feb 5 then found the IRS was not accepting any e-filed returns until Feb 12 or later. I refiled Feb 15 and my refund was in my account Feb 23.

Last year I filed some time in April by mail to Ogden Utah and heard nothing. After the deadline for 2019 taxes was postponed I did get ahold of a real person and was advised to file online. I did and everything went through quite smoothly. I never heard anything about the paper return I filed by mail for my 2019 taxes.

Maybe try re-filing the online return again and see what happens.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

My biggest question, why must one send a tax return from Pennsylvania to Ogden, Utah when there are several IRS offices closer, including Philadelphia?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I filed an amended 2018 return (for a refund) in January 2020. My 2019 return was filed in March 2020. In March, the IRS was projecting that the 2018 return wouldn't be processed until 16 weeks after filing. That date passed without any action. I finally got my refund in late December.

My CPA always e-files my stuff and it makes things go much more smoothly. The amended return was large and the CPA said it had to paper-filed. None of the e-filed returns has had any problem. E-filing just has to deal with computers, which do not get the v***s so they kept working. I suspect that refunds have to have some human interaction, so that slows them down. I don't usually get refunds in my normal filings. If your witholding is not sufficient to pay your tax but the witholding covers your tax for the previous year and is not more than a couple percent below the tax owed, you can avoid penalties. The only time we have problems is when we have large variations in income.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

The USPS serves me well. Always has. I just can’t figure why so many Hoggers have so many issues with USPS.

STAN

G. Crook Loc: Linden, TX

Filed my taxes electronically (as I ht done for many years) early last month and had both my Federal and State refunds show up in my bank account in less than two weeks.

tgreenhaw

Agreed - a flat tax for everyone including corporations makes too much sense.

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

Same here. I always use Free Tax USA with no problems.

will

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Never happen, because - Insufficient Opportunity For Graft.

Politicians get lots of money from interested parties for adding and removing bits and pieces of the tax code that help some and hurt others. If the law just said "X% on Income", then regulations would have to be used to define exactly what "income" means, and those are written by drones in the Treasury Department, not Congresscritters with their hands out.

It's much harder for big players to bribe mid-level bureaucrats than politicians on the campaign trail, so the big players wouldn't want a flat tax. And of course the politicians would lose out of the money, so they don't want flat tax either. When the big players AND the politicians don't want something, it mostly ain't gonna happen, no matter what the v**ers want.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

A flat tax sounds like it might be fair to everyone but I don't think it would be.

There are big differences in income. Not just big differences but humongous differences. Should someone being paid minimum wage (or less) pay the same percentage of their income as billionaires? Low wage earners have essentially no disposable income. Billionaires have lots of disposable income (a generalization). Paying a fixed fraction of income is easy for a billionaire but really tough for low wage earners.

Some companies work on really low margins. Some have high margins. Should they pay on their incomes or on their profit? Incomes are straightforward to calculate but profit isn't.

So maybe the low wage earners should only pay on income above a certain point? Now we have introduced deductions. Which deductions are appropriate and which aren't? Enter politics.

I think the tax laws need to be revised and simplified, but as Einstein once said (approximately): "Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler".

rdemarco52 Loc: Wantagh, NY

Those are probably lock boxes. They deposit checks fairly quick.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Correct. The government employees who are allowed to open envelopes with money in 'em are NOT the same as the government employees who just open envelopes.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Ask the i***t Mr. Biden.