Call 4 Action Helps Pepperell Man Get Missing Tax Refund
PEPPERELL (CBS) - A Pepperell man has been looking for his state tax refund for nearly three months, and wants to know, what's taking so long?
So he got in touch with us. We got him answers, and the check is soon to be in the mail.
"I've been doing taxes for 35 years. This never happened before. What's going on? Why this year?" asks Dave Pimm.
He says he mailed his Massachusetts income tax return at the end of February, and that a state tax website indicates it was received on March 3rd.
The website also indicates the turnaround time for a refund is 8-10 weeks for a no-problem return.
"That puts it in mid May, or something to that effect, but no refund," Pimm says.
Dave says he emailed the Massachusetts Department of Revenue at the beginning of June trying to find out what was happening.
"The website says there will be a response within 4 to 5 days. I got nothing," he says.
So he tried again yesterday.
"I got an immediate response," he says.
The email Dave received says: "We are behind on issuing refunds this year. We are experiencing a high volume of tax returns causing additional delays."
So we contacted the Dept. of Revenue. To make this story more mysterious, a spokesperson for the department says the email Dave received is not correct, that in fact refunds are ahead of where they were last year.
The DOR is trying to figure out why the email is wrong, but in the meantime they've taken care of Dave, and say his refund is going out tonight.
"If I were to send them money late, they'd charge me a late fee and interest. Well, maybe they should give me a late fee and interest. That's what I'm waiting for, but that'll never happen," Dave says.
Due to taxpayer confidentiality laws the Revenue Department can't tell us why Dave's refund took so long. The DOR says it has made about 2.5 million refunds worth $1.27 billion so far.