I had two sitting for about 6 weeks, called the Practitioner Hotline and was told the IRS has a new procedure this year which involves the IRS, by some means, contacting the employer or whoever reported Federal withholding, to verify the amount reported on the W2 and then the refund is issued. The IRS is not accepting the W2 amount as valid until it is verified by this method.

In my client's cases, the Dept. of Job and Family Services for the State of Ohio was not responding to the IRS to verify the amount withheld for unemployment benefits paid in 2018 and the refunds were held until that verification was received. Both clients received the refunds this week, finally. They both also called the ODJFS and demanded to know why they were holding up the IRS refunds by not responding and verifying the withholding.

If you are the 3rd party designee, call the Practitioner's Hotline and see why they are being held up. One problem, however, Proseries did not transmit the 3rd pty designee PIN # correctly on the early returns so there is no record of that authorization. I told the agent that I had a signed 8879, giving me the authority to inquire, on behalf of the taxpayer, why there was a delay on the refund. Their response was "What's an 8879", so I faxed it and got the answer explained above.