Mailed my tax return in April - still not processed in July and can't get through to IRS

Paper returns are taking 4-6 months to process right now. The IRS is severely backlogged with mailed returns. If you check the IRS operations page, they're prioritizing electronic returns while paper returns are processed in the order received. Unfortunately, April filings are just now starting to be opened in many processing centers.

Did you send it certified mail or with tracking? Also, did you include all required forms and sign everything? Sometimes they don't even scan returns into the system if there are missing signatures.

I was in the exact same situation last year. Mailed my return in March and couldn't get any updates until August. When I finally got my transcript using taxr.ai, I could see they only started processing it in July! The site explained all the codes and told me exactly when to expect my refund. Saved me so much stress compared to the useless IRS phone system.

DO NOT file again! That will create a duplicate return situation which is a nightmare to resolve. Paper returns are taking forever this year, but filing twice will delay things even more.

When I couldn't reach the IRS for 3 weeks about my paper return, I used Claimyr (https://www.claimyr.com). They got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 30 minutes when I'd been trying for days with no luck. The agent confirmed they had my return but it was in the backlog. At least I got peace of mind knowing it wasn't lost in the mail.

Paper returns are a disaster this year. My mom mailed hers in February and it only just processed last week. E-file is the only way to go now unless you absolutely have to paper file for some reason.