By Michelle Smith

As of last week, the IRS had cut fewer checks and refunded less money than during the same period last year. USA Today reports that taxpayers, who are waiting longer than normal for returns, want to know where their money is.

Refunds, which averaged 7 days to 13 days last year are taking 15 to 21 days this year, reported USA Today.

According to Michelle Eldridge, an IRS spokesperson, that’s still within the historical time frame of delivery for refunds.

In a nation where rapid refunding was a service many Americans paid hefty fees for year after year, such statements offer little comfort.

It only aggravates matters that earlier this month the IRS tool called “Where’s My Refund” proved to be useless. It is supposed to inform anxious taxpayers of the status of their returns.

USA Today reported that earlier this month, taxpayers who used the tool were informed that the IRS had no information about their tax return.

This roused fear in many people that their tax returns hadn’t been accepted. That tool has since been fixed, but the nation’s tax bureau still isn’t cranking out refunds as fast as they used to.

The IRS wants to be paint a picture of routine operations that are perhaps mildly impacted by the kickoff of a new tax season and system upgrades. The recent delays are being attributed to this season’s new fraud protection measures.

According to the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier, an IRS statement says, “as with start of any tax season, there are some system validations that occur requiring some fine tuning of our systems.”

It continues: “As part of this, some taxpayers will receive refunds approximately one week later than initial projections they may have received,” the Post and Courier reported.