35 million tax returns remain unprocessed by IRS; Where’s my refund?

**This May 4, 2021, photo shows a sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington.** *(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)AP*

The IRS has a backlog of more than 35 million unprocessed tax returns, according to a government watchdog group.

A report from the National Taxpayer Advocate found the backlog generally involved returns that require manual processing. It includes about 16.8 million paper tax returns waiting to be processed; 15.8 million returns suspended during processing that requires further review; and about 2.7 million amended returns awaiting processing, the New York Post reported.

The backlog marks a sharp increase over the past two years, when the IRS had a backlog of 7.4 million and 10.7 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Two of the major issues this tax season involves returns that include the Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit.

So far, the IRS has processed 136 million individual income tax returns and issued 96 million refunds worth about $270 billion during the 2021 filing season.