Representative Danny Davis (D-IL) remains concerned about the speed at which the IRS is providing paper check refunds to taxpayers this filing season.
Davis, along with Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL), wrote Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on March 9 with concerns that taxpayers who cannot receive their tax refunds via electronic payment may have to wait more than 10 weeks to receive a refund by paper check. Davis pressed Bessent for clear answers to his questions about paper refund processing during a June 4 House Ways and Means Committee hearing.
Paperless Transition Underway
Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano have both stressed that 98% of taxpayers now receive their refund electronically. The IRS’ May 8 filing season data indicates that the total number of direct deposit refunds increased by 14% since the last filing season. That jump appears tied to the IRS’ paperless transition efforts, spurred by a 2025 executive order that calls for a shift to electronic federal payments to and from the IRS.
However, despite these efforts, not all taxpayers are able to receive electronic refunds. As of 2023, over 4% of U.S. households lacked a savings or checking account per a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation survey. Taxpayers in certain religious groups may avoid electronic payment systems, while victims of domestic violence may be wary of sharing their banking information. Still other taxpayers, including those with disabilities and older taxpayers, may face challenges in using electronic banking systems.
“Many of my constituents — especially older individuals — are not comfortable with or lack the infrastructure for electronic payment systems,” Davis told Checkpoint. “All taxpayers deserve to receive their tax refunds quickly, and delayed refunds can cause serious hardship,” he added.
Lawmakers Seek Stats on Impacted Taxpayers, Length of Delays
Davis and Sewell’s March 9 letter sought data on individuals whose tax refunds have been delayed due to the IRS’ paperless transition efforts.
The lawmakers followed up with a March 24 letter raising additional concerns about refund delays after taxpayers receive a CP53E notice from the IRS indicating they have a refund, but their bank information is missing or invalid. The IRS recently updated its guidance on these notices — taxpayers have 30 days to respond with bank information, and those that fail to respond will be issued a paper check after six weeks.
“This processing timeframe must be shortened,” wrote the lawmakers in their March 24 letter. They said they were “dismayed” that the IRS failed to respond to their previous letter.
Davis, speaking at the June 4 hearing with Bessent, added that he’d requested a meeting with IRS or Treasury staff on the matter. “It was not until this morning that I received a response from Treasury,” Davis told Bessent, referring to a June 3 letter signed by Bisignano. “[A]lthough the letter contained some high-level information, it is insufficient to reassure me that Americans are receiving their refunds quickly,” Davis added.
Bisignano’s letter indicates that the IRS had issued 2.2 million CP53E notices through March 31, and that 1.7 million refunds had been impacted. The letter goes on to explain that the figures include duplicate notices, such as when notices are sent to both spouses or to an authorized representative.
The IRS’ June 3 response “fails to convey the current number of unique taxpayers whose refunds were delayed,” Davis told Bessent. The letter also does not “give a clear understanding” of how long taxpayers must wait for a paper check, he added.
In addition to being light on detail, Davis described the information in Bisignano’s letter as “substantially outdated.” The congressman noted that the IRS shared dataon CP53E notices initiated by state, as of April 18, 2026. That data showed the IRS had sent a total of 3.4 million notices, including 110,000 to Davis’ home state of Illinois. Residents of the most populous U.S. states — California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas — received a combined 1.29 million notices by April 18.
“I am deeply frustrated and increasingly alarmed by the inability of the Trump administration to tell me if the 110,000 Illinoisans who got delayed-refund notices received their checks and, if so, how long it took,” Davis told Checkpoint. “We don’t even know how many taxpayers had their refunds delayed or how many days most taxpayers wait between when the IRS accepts their tax returns and when the IRS mails the delayed-refund checks,” he added.
“Secretary Bessent indicated that he would work to answer my questions,” Davis said after the hearing. “I hope that will occur without another 3-month delay and that the information in the response will be timely and accurate.”
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