IRS: Will the refund be faster this year?

Everything that is known about the IRS refund deadline this year.

The IRS statement delivery started on April 1st and many taxpayers eagerly await the refund. The Government predicts that the average time to receive the refund will be reduced, making the process even quicker than the 13 days recorded in 2024.

According to Notícias ao Minuto, in an interview with Lusa, the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Cláudia Reis Duarte, stated that the trend of reducing the average refund time will continue this year, especially for taxpayers who use automatic IRS.

Reimbursement varies according to each case.

Despite the goal of shortening deadlines, Cláudia Reis Duarte pointed out that the time needed for reimbursement may differ on a case-by-case basis. The complexity of the declaration, the number of attachments, or the taxpayer's fiscal situation may influence processing time.

Nevertheless, the expansion of situations covered by automatic IRS and the increasing adherence of taxpayers to this system should allow for a quicker refund. "With the increase in pre-filled declarations and automatic IRS, we hope to continue reducing average refund times," emphasized the minister.

In 2024, the average time to refund the approximately six million tax returns processed by the Tax Authority until August 1st was 24.2 days. For returns submitted through automatic IRS, this period dropped to 12.9 days.

Update the IBAN to avoid delays in refund.

Another factor that can delay the processing of tax returns is the lack of updating or incorrect indication of the IBAN. The Secretary of State emphasized the importance of taxpayers verifying this data when filling out the return.

In addition, appealed to taxpayers do not leave the submission of the declaration until the last days of the deadline, in order to avoid embarrassment, since the declaration for this year has few changes compared to last year.

Read more about IRS here: A guide to better understand IRS

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