After No Response, Reps. Sewell and Davis Blast Treasury on Growing Delayed Refund Crisis

Today's letter follows an unanswered request for information about 1.4 million notices of delayed tax refunds

Washington D.C. - Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member Terri A. Sewell (AL-07) and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Ranking Member Danny K. Davis (IL-07) are fighting for information for taxpayers who have received notices of their refund being delayed, despite Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refusing to answer even simple questions on the topic. During the Ways and Means Committee hearing with IRS CEO Frank Bisignano , the lawmakers requested a copy of the notice and were sent an altered version for a reason yet to be discovered.

By ignoring yesterday's, March 23, deadline to furnish more information, Bessent and the Trump Administration are making it clear that they don't care about the fate of the 1.4 million taxpayers currently affected by these delays-a number that has been growing at a clip of 300,000 taxpayers per week.

"During a recent hearing, we requested a copy of the notice, state-by-state data on the notices sent, and an answer as to when the processing clock begins to run for taxpayers who respond to the notice," the lawmakers reminded Bessent. "However, we only received an altered version of the notice cleared by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury). The altered version is different from both the actual version sent to taxpayers and the version we obtained from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). We are troubled by the differences.

Sewell and Davis continued: "Our first and foremost concern is that taxpayers could face a 10-week wait for their paper refunds. This is not clearly stated on the notice. Nor does it warn taxpayers that a paper check could take another six weeks beyond the 30 days given to respond."

The lawmakers highlighted how, "the IRS has no publicly established process for taxpayers who lack an online account to request a timely check. The IRS telephone number provided in the notice does not connect to a live assistor. Instead, an automated recording notifies callers to set up an IRS online account. By listing a telephone number, the notice gives taxpayers a false impression that they have the option to request their refunds by phone."

Sewell and Davis continued by laying out the discrepancies between the actual notice being sent to taxpayers and the altered notice received from Treasury.

Treasury has until April 6, 2026, to stop standing in the way of Congress's oversight responsibility and provide more information.

Read the full letter here.

In March of 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14247, mandating electronic payments of tax refunds. Last year, the National Taxpayer Advocate reported that over 10 million individual taxpayers received their refunds by paper check and may be unbanked, have impairments, or face systemic or geographic challenges that make providing electronic deposit information difficult. As a result, this year, more than 1.4 million taxpayers have received notices from the IRS that their refunds are being held and delayed, some by more than 2 months, because they did not provide the required banking information.