With the average tax refund expected to surge past $4,000 this year, taxpayers are no doubt eager for their cash.
However, residents of some states may have to wait longer than normal to receive their refund payments due to issues prolonging processing times. Wait times for federal tax returns could be longer this season because of budget cuts.
To date, the Internal Revenue Service has received 51.5 million federal returns, with tens of millions more expected to come by the April 15 filing deadline.
People can lower the chance of a slow return by double-checking all information they include in their tax filing. Even small errors can lead to an extended processing timeline.
Idaho
Budget cuts to the Idaho Tax Commission will result in taxpayers facing long wait times to get their refunds.
Tax return processing was projected to take 12 to 14 weeks longer, and refunds were estimated to take “up to six weeks longer to arrive in filers’ accounts,” according to a February 10 letter from the Idaho Division of Financial Management.
However, the state has seemed to work out some of the issues that were causing the initial slowdown.
People who submit their returns on or after March 10 will face timelines of seven to eight weeks from filing to receiving a refund for e-filers – and 10 to 11 weeks for those who file paper returns, according to a press release from the tax commission.
Those who filed taxes before Tuesday may still see prolonged return and refund processing.
Oregon
The Oregon Department of Revenue alerted taxpayers that those filing paper returns will not start receiving their refunds until early April.
E-filers, on the other hand, face no delays and are being processed “in the order they are received,” the state’s revenue department website noted.
“Yes, paper return processing is still delayed,” Maxey told The Independent by email. “We expect processing to begin at the end of March, with the first refunds going out on paper-filed returns in April, on track with our prior estimates.
The department has distributed more than 700,000 refunds to e-filers, he said.
South Carolina
The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 implemented certain changes to tax laws that states could choose to follow or not.
Working through those changes and deciding what to adopt and reject has caused slowdowns in the time it takes for the South Carolina Department of Revenue to process returns, the department’s website notes.
Delays will slow down tax return processing and lead to longer timelines for receiving tax refunds.
There are no specific timelines on the revenue department’s website. An email from The Independent seeking clarification has not received a response.
Washington DC
Residents in the nation’s capital are facing delays for e-filed and paper returns, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue said. The delays come as the District of Columbia spars with the federal government over its choice not to adopt at the state level certain tax provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including no tax on overtime, 4 Washington reports.
In the meantime, the state tax season will continue using the District of Columbia’s tax laws, according to a letter sent by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee to Mayor Muriel Bowser, local news site The 51st reported.
This means that D.C. taxpayers will still pay taxes on tips and overtime, receive a child tax credit that’s lower than the IRS’s child tax credit and not receive a qualified business income deduction.
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