May 17 tax-filing deadline: What you can do to avoid a tax-refund delay

With only a few days remaining until the May 17 tax deadline, almost 40 million taxpayers have yet to send their tax forms to the IRS. Last-minute filers will be wading into a tax season unlike any other, with a growing backlog at the IRS delaying tax refunds by weeks or even months for millions of taxpayers.

There are some steps taxpayers can take to minimize the risk of getting their tax returns flagged by the IRS for manual processing — a procedure that can cause long delays in getting your tax refund, experts say. So far, about 121 million people have filed their returns, or 5 million fewer people than had filed by this time last year, according to IRS data. Of those who have already filed this year, about 81 million have received refunds through the end of April.  Typically, millions of Americans wait until the last minute to file their taxes, but the ranks of procrastinators has grown this year amid an ongoing pandemic and a bevy of tax code changes enacted by several stimulus bills. The typical tax refund is almost $3,000, which may represent the biggest check of the year for many taxpayers, and the IRS says that 9 in 10 refunds are issued within 21 days of filing electronically, and within 6 weeks for paper returns sent in the mail.