How badly do you need your income tax refund check? If you are like me, you already have plans for the refund—assuming you are to receive a refund. Well guess what? Uncle Sam has predicted that middle income folks will have to wait at least a month extra to get their money this year. No joke.

Tax refunds will be delayed for millions of middle-income taxpayers next year because of late action by Congress to limit the widening reach of the so-called alternative minimum tax, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday.

Until lawmakers passed a one-year “patch” last week, the alternative tax, once aimed at wealthy filers, had threatened to ensnare about 23 million Americans for the first time — including about half of the taxpayers earning $75,000 to $100,000 a year.

Because the patch was adopted so late, the IRS has been scrambling to revise a dozen affected forms and to revamp its computer systems to deal with the changes. The agency has done this work on seven of the forms but says it will take until mid-February to finish the remaining five.

The 13.5 million taxpayers who need to file one or more of those five forms, including parents who claim write-offs for paying college tuition or day-care expenses, won’t be able to file their returns until Feb. 11. Because it typically takes 10 days to six weeks to get a refund, that means the affected taxpayers probably won’t be able to get their refunds until late February or March.

If you would like to know whether or not you will be affected, check out the list below:

You’re affected if you intended to file your return before Feb. 11 and claim one of the following credits, for which the IRS forms won’t be updated until then:

* The education tax credit (which is claimed on IRS Form 8863)

* A credit for dependent-care expenses (Schedule 2 on Form 1040A)

* A credit for buying energy-efficient products (Form 5695)

* A mortgage interest credit available to people receiving certain types of housing assistance (Form 8396)

* A credit available to first-time home buyers in the District of Columbia (Form 8859)

The IRS estimates that 3 million to 4 million people will face a delay in filing and getting a refund, if they’re eligible for one.

For more detailed information, go directly to the article, located HERE