Reply To: What ‘s the life cycle of an individual tax return?

[Anonymous]

IMO there must be a method to the madness. I highly doubt an agency that relies so heavily on precision can act as randomly as many of us perceive. Last year I started a thread entitled “Is there a Pattern” under the username E (I actually went by Typhoon Dragon as well but it’s a long story). Anyway, as I’ve been reading the posts here and elsewhere I realized that in order to determine if there was a pattern at all I would first have to understand what happens during the life cycle of an individual tax return. What’s actually going on between point A (the receipt of our forms at the IRS) and point B (the receipt of our refunds in our accounts)? For people to file and be accepted on the same day yet receive their refunds days or even weeks apart suggests that some returns must take more steps between points A and B than others. Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated by me and may prove to be very useful to all of us.

[Anonymous]

@TyphoonDragon I love your logic and your grocery store made me laugh! I’ve come to realize that there is definitely no rhyme or reason to returns this year but as long as it doesn’t take 3 weeks like it did last year I’ll be happy :)