Tax Refunds Are Arriving for 2025 Filers

Does the PATH hold apply if I only claimed the child tax credit but not the earned income credit? Been waiting 25 days now and still nothing showing in my account. Getting worried since I really need that money for some bills coming up.

The PATH hold specifically applies to returns claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). The regular Child Tax Credit by itself wouldn't trigger the PATH hold. Since you've been waiting 25 days, I'd recommend checking the "Where's My Refund" tool on the IRS website for more specific information about your return. If it shows "still processing," that's normal but if you see an error message, you might need to contact the IRS directly.

Did you have to create an account to use it? I'm always hesitant to give my information to new tax sites since I've had identity theft issues before.

How exactly did they help with the amended return? I think I messed up something similar with my rideshare income on my Schedule C and my refund is stuck in limbo too.

You can try it out without creating a full account initially, which is what I did because I was hesitant too. They only ask for what's needed to analyze your documents. Their system actually identified the specific line on my Schedule C where I had incorrectly categorized some business expenses, which was causing the delay. They provided a detailed explanation of how to correctly report my rideshare income and which expenses were legitimate deductions. They don't file the amended return for you, but they give you the exact information you need to do it correctly yourself.

How does this actually work? Does the IRS know about this service? Seems too good to be true that you can just skip the hold time.

Yeah right. Nothing gets the IRS to move faster. I'll believe it when I see it. Been waiting 37 days now with "still processing" and have zero faith in any service claiming to help.

They don't skip the line - they basically wait in the phone queue for you. It works by using automated technology to stay on hold with the IRS, and when a representative is about to answer, their system calls you and connects you directly. The IRS just sees it as a normal call. I understand the skepticism completely. I felt the same way! But the difference is being able to speak to an actual human at the IRS versus getting nowhere with the automated system. In my case, there was a simple verification issue that I couldn't resolve through the website. Once I talked to a person, they cleared it up immediately. Not saying it works miracles, but at least you don't waste hours on hold.

Same! Got GA state refund in 6 days but federal still says processing after 3 weeks. Starting to get annoyed because I need to pay some medical bills.

Depends on your state. I'm in California and it's the opposite - got federal in 2 weeks but still waiting on state after 30 days. Their system is swamped this year.

Interesting to hear the different experiences. I'm in Michigan and they've been super fast with processing state returns this year. I wonder if the federal delay has something to do with the type of credits claimed. I did have both education credits and child tax credits on mine which might be slowing things down.

Usually when that happens the deposit will hit your account on Friday (the business day before). That happened with mine - said Sunday but showed up Friday morning. Check both days just to be safe!