By Dallas Gagnon
masslive.com
(TNS)
More than 800,000 tax refunds are being delayed this filing season as a growing number of taxpayers are waiting on their refunds after missing a key step when filing this year.
A March 9 letter from Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confirms the agency has already issued approximately 530,000 IRS CP53E notices and plans to send roughly 300,000 more—totaling more than 830,000 so far.
These notices are going to taxpayers whose returns lacked valid direct deposit information, and the delays could stretch beyond 10 weeks for some filers.
When the IRS cannot process a refund electronically, the agency issues a CP53E notice asking the taxpayer to provide or update their banking details through an IRS Online Account.
Taxpayers generally have 30 days to respond.
If they do not, the IRS will issue a paper check after about six weeks, which can substantially delay the refund compared with electronic deposits.
These delays are tied to the IRS’s implementation of Executive Order 14247, which directed the federal government to phase out paper tax refund checks in favor of electronic payments such as direct deposit.
Recommended Articles
Under this directive, the IRS stopped issuing most paper refund checks for individual taxpayers beginning Sept. 30, 2025.
When the decision was first announced, the IRS said cutting costs and speeding up refunds were key drivers behind the move.
“Most individual taxpayers already receive their refunds by direct deposit into their bank accounts,” the agency wrote in a Sept. 23 announcement.
“During the 2025 tax filing season, the IRS issued more than 93.5 million tax refunds to individual income tax filers, and 93% of those, almost 87 million refunds, were issued through direct deposit.”
Last filing season, only 7% of taxpayers were still opting to receive their returns via paper check.
Photo credit: bernie_photo/iStock
_______
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
Thanks for reading CPA Practice Advisor!
Subscribe Already registered? Log In
Need more information? Read the FAQs
