I filed our income taxes electronically on April 11th. We got the state refund back almost immediately. The IRS has a website - Where's My Refund? I checked it every day or so and got the same message - if there are no problems with your return your refund will be processed on April 25th. Then one day the message said - there is a delay processing your return, for more information, please call.
Great! What now? Did I make a mistake? Are we going to be audited? Do I really want to know? Should I just wait until they call me? No, just do it, make the call. So I waited until I had a block of time to wait on hold, and dialed the number (why do we still say dialed the number, when I haven't dialed a number in years?). Right away a real person answered the phone and proceeded to help me. Wow. I told her why I was calling and she looked it up.
She said I had sent in my estimated taxes using my SS#, and they did not credit toward our joint tax return. She advised me that I should always put my husband's SS# first. I thought what a chauvinistic idea!
The more I thought about it, the more it did not make sense. If I was working for an employer, my taxes would be sent in using my SS#, and they would be credited to our joint return. I have sent in my estimated taxes like this before, and never had any problem. So I thought, what is different about this year? I know, we are getting a refund! The past few years we have had to PAY, and you know, they never said "There will be a delay in depositing your check while we verify your return."
So all this is just a way to delay our refund. Now that is not surprising at all!
I'm still waiting...
