Expecting a tax refund from the state of Illinois? Be prepared to wait.
The Illinois Department of Revenue has announced that they do not anticipate releasing individual tax refunds for the 2016 tax filing season until after March 1, 2016 (downloads as a pdf). The decision is, as you can imagine, related to concerns over identity theft-related tax fraud. The Department plans to spend more time examining tax returns in order to ensure that tax refunds are properly paid over to the taxpayers who are entitled to receive them.
According to Department Director Connie Beard, “Fraud prevention measures implemented by the Department of Revenue during last year’s tax season resulted in an overall savings of nearly $5 million that would have, otherwise, been paid.” Beard says that “[b]y delaying tax refunds by just a few weeks, we’ll be able to better detect attempts at identity theft and ensure taxpayer refunds do not fall needlessly into the hands of criminals.”
What can you do to speed things along on your end? Taxpayers who electronically file their returns and use direct deposit have the best chance of receiving their refunds quickly. According to the Department, if you file an electronic return prior to March 1, 2016, you’ll likely see your refund two to three weeks after March 1, 2016. If you file an “error-free” electronic return on or after March 1, 2016, you should see your refund within two to three weeks.
While Illinois is the first state to make such an announcement, I don’t expect it to be the last. As tax authorities continue to struggle over how best to prevent identity theft-related tax fraud, it’s very likely that the processing of returns and refunds will be slow – at least at the beginning of the tax season.
