Several technical factors cause legitimate deposits to stall. Income discrepancies between employer-reported W-2 forms and taxpayer entries trigger automated matching flags. When this occurs, automated processing halts, shifting the return to manual review queues that take four to eight weeks to resolve.
Another major driver is outdated routing information. Following widespread bank consolidations and regional bank changes between 2023 and 2025, many taxpayers inadvertently file with legacy routing numbers. When an electronic transfer fails, the Treasury cancels the digital transfer and issues a paper check to the physical address on file, adding up to 30 business days to the government assistance timeline.
