What Is Tax Topic 152?
If you wanted to check the status of your tax refund on the IRS website, you might encounter the message saying refer to Tax Topic 152. Naturally, you wonder about it and want to learn the reason why you cannot check the status of your tax refund. In this guide, we will discuss the general outlines of this code and what you can do about it.
Tax Topic 152 is one of the general reference codes that taxpayers can encounter while using the services on the IRS website. The good part of the Tax Topic 152 is you will not need to follow additional steps just like other reference codes on the website.
The IRS declares that ninety percent of the tax refunds are processed in less than 21 days. However, Tax Topic 152 is shown to taxpayers, whose refund process may require additional time to review, and the refund can take longer than three weeks.
It is worth noting that Tax Topic 152 doesn’t imply that you did a mistake during the process or mistyped anything on your form. It only refers to the processing of your tax refund and no decision such as approval or rejection has been made yet.
Why May You See the Tax Topic 152 Reference Code?
Although the reasons may vary, in general, there are four causes that cause your tax refund process to take longer. If you meet one or more of the following conditions, the reason you see the Tax Topic 152 may be them:
- Making a claim for an Injured Spouse
- Requesting tax withheld refund with Form 1042-S with Form 1040-NR (it takes about 6 months to receive your return)
- Amended return refunds (it takes about 16-20 weeks to receive your refund)
- Individual Taxpayer Identification application
How to Prevent Delays in Your Tax Refund?
There are some simple steps that you can follow while filling out your tax return to prevent any possible delays. You need to provide all the necessary information, which can significantly minimize the possibility of delay. For this reason, you need to pay attention to the following items:
- If the IRS issued you one, then you need to provide your Identity Protection PIN,
- Make sure you fill all personal identification information accurately and in full, such as names, social security numbers, birth dates of yourself, spouse, and dependents (if any),
- Your taxpayer identification number and tax return of the previous year,
- If you have health insurance coverage, then all the necessary forms such as Form 1095,
- Any income-related forms you receive, such as 1099s or W-2s
By following this checklist, you can easily minimize the possibility of any delay for your tax return and will not have to encounter Tax Topic 152 during your actions on the IRS website.
