Where’s My Amended Return : What You Don’t Know !

What is amended return definition?

An amended return is fresh tax return amending 1040 using 1040X and submitting to the IRS .This is usually done when you detect any omission or misreporting the income . So, the amended tax return is filed in order to make corrections to a tax return from a previous year. An amended return can correct errors and claim a more advantageous tax status, such as a refund. For example, one might choose to file an amended return in instances of misreported earnings or tax credits.

Where’s My Amended Return? online tool

Where’s My Amended Return? is an online tool that you can use to check the status of your amended tax return, i.e. Form 1040-X that is prescribed for amending or revising Form  1040, 1040-A, 1040-EZ, 1040-NR or 1040-NR EZ. This post is to explain certain common issues associated with using this online tool put on the IRS website.However , you may note following five points that indicate what you should not expect from it

Can’t view mended return Form 1040-X before 3 weeks after submission

Can you check the status of your tax-amended Form 1040X using the Where’s My Amended Return? online tool only after 3 weeks from the date of filing or mailing the amended return to the IRS. If you are curious to know “is the IRS processing amended returns“, you can log in to the amended return tool. Still, as a thumb rule, you need to wait for another 16 weeks because IRS usually takes that much standard time to process the electronically filed tax return. Calling on the IRS phone may not be very helpful before 16 weeks if you want to know about the processed, amended return or if a tax refund was processed as per the amended return.

Reason why amended return takes long to process.

If you have a question like ” I have not received my amended tax refund “, you should log in to the online tool –where’s my amended return? If you find that your Form 1040-X is not processed even after the usual 16 weeks, then one of the following reasons might be the culprit for the delay in processing the amended return.

1. Form 1040-X was filed with errors or filed incomplete
2. Did you check that the amended return was filed after putting the signature in the right place? IRS will not process an amended return if it is not signed and submitted.
3. Your amended return is returned to you by the IRS  requesting more information.
4. Includes a Form 8379, Injured Spouse6
5. Allocation
6. Processing of your 1040-X will also take more than usual time if the IRS system finds it affected by identity theft or fraud.
7. If your amended return needs routing to a specialized area
8. If your tax return needs clearance by the bankruptcy area within the IRS.
9. needs review and approval by a revenue office because of various flagging that systems make when they initiate processing.
10. Your amended return needs a review of an appeal or a requested reconsideration of an IRS decision.

What are the Limitations of Where’s My Amended Return? 

The IRS online tool for amended returns is quite helpful, yet it has some limitations. Below is the list of information that you would like to check but can not check using Where’s My Amended Return, such as :

1. If you are trying to find your carry-back applications and claims or Injured spouse claims
2. If you filed Form 1040, by marking it as an amended or corrected return  and not the correct form for amending your 1040, i.e Form 1040X
3. You might not find the info if you filed n amended return 1040-X with a foreign address.
4. This tool does not show your business tax amended return.
5. Using this tool, you can not find the tax refund status on your current tax return in Form 1040. Read 3 easy ways to know about refund

Only three years amended return status can be viewed!

You can track the status of amended returns through the online tool Where’s My Amended Return? for the current year and up to three prior years.

Before you hop to the amended return tool, keep these handy. 

To log in to the where’s my amended return online tool, you must have certain information like your social security number, date of birth and the zip code of your address. Unless you have these, do not start because the system will require these for the authentication process. Once correctly logged in, the Where’s my amended tax return web tool displays the status of your amended return within the processing stages: Received, Adjusted, or Completed.

Have you read how to file an amended tax return.