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(AP)—The IRS says 660,000 taxpayers will have their refunds delayed by up to six weeks because of a problem with the software they used to file their tax returns.
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The software problem was on Form 8863, which is used to claim the American Opportunity credit, which provides up to $2,500 to help pay for college expenses, and the Lifetime Learning credit, which provides up to $2,000. The form includes a series of questions. On some of the questions, if the taxpayer answered "no," the answer was left blank when the form was electronically transmitted to the IRS.
The delay affects people claiming education tax credits who filed returns between Feb. 14 and Feb. 22.
H&R Block, the tax preparing giant, says that some of its customers were affected but the company has resolved the problem. A limited number of other software companies have also had problems, but IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge declined to name them.
"It's important to note that the tax returns were prepared accurately. The error occurred in e-file processing," H&R Block said in a statement. "We are communicating directly with our impacted clients to assure them that we are doing everything we can to expedite their returns."
Turbo Tax spokeswoman Julie Miller said that their customers were not affected by the glitch.
Taxpayers can check the status of their refund on the agency's "Where's my refund?" website. The IRS says the status of a refund is only updated once a day, usually at night. Last month, the agency asked taxpayers not to check the website more than once a day because it was being overwhelmed by eager taxpayers.
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