The Horticulturalist

How long does it usually to get your tax return back? Maybe that's a how long is a piece of string question.........

And for those of you who have lived here a long time, what are the odds of being audited? We've never been asked for an audit in the UK, I wondered if it was more common here.

Duncan Roberts

What do you mean get it back? From an accountant or a refund from the IRS? If it's a refund and you efile there is a schedule and it's usually around 10 days. If you don't efile I think there is still a schedule but it's longer. If you are talking about from an accountant, it depends on how busy they are. Kind of a weird time to be asking this sort of question!

The Horticulturalist

Why a wierd time? Our accountant asked for an extension as it was our first year here and they gave us that.

It was submitted to the IRS after being prepared by an accountant (paper copy) by mail back in August or so and then returned shortly after that as we'd mistakenly sent copies of our passport visa pages instead of the actual passport pages. We returned it with the correct passport copies about 2 weeks ago I think. We are expecting a refund.

Duncan Roberts

It's just very much outside tax season and I don't know many people who have ever filed for an extension, especially if you are expecting a refund. If you go to the IRS website and click on individuals there is a section where you can track refunds.

The Horticulturalist

ok, thanks, I'll have a look.

helwardman

I e-filed and got a refund pretty quickly. Just a couple of weeks I think.

Bill_S

A blanket figure (eg. one in x returns are audited) wouldn't be very meaningful. If you have an uncomplicated return the chances of a full audit are extremely low. The sorts of things that raise the probability are: simple math errors; being self-employed; discrepancies in the amounts of interest & dividend income that the taxpayer reported versus what the financial institution reported (something like that happened with us); claiming an unusually high amount of deductions (if you claim $500 in charitable contributions, they'll believe it; claim $25,000 and they'll be asking questions); claiming the Earned Income Credit.

Our one "audit" was conducted by mail, and worked out in our favor.

The Horticulturalist

Ok, that's helpful. From your list our return would appear to be very simple as we only have one source of income and no savings or investments of any kind so far.