Danny Davis

More than 800,000 people waiting for their tax refunds face weeks of delays related to banking information.

Democratic lawmakers U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell of Alabama and Danny Davis of Illinois sent a letter to the IRS earlier this month with concerns about delays to tax refunds, some as long as 10 weeks.

According to lawmakers, the tax agency has sent more than 830,000 IRS Notice CP53E after President Trump’s executive order mandating a shift from electronic payments to paper checks.

President Trump’s “Modernizing Payment To and From America’s Bank Account,” Executive Order, signed in March 2025, requires the IRS and other federal agencies to move away from paper checks except in an extremely limited number of cases. The move to electronic payments covers those sent by the federal government, including tax refunds, as well as payments made to the government, such as taxes.

10 million paper checks last year

Citing the National Taxpayer Advocate, the lawmakers said more than 10 million individuals received their refunds by paper check last year.

“These taxpayers may be unbanked, have impairments, or face systemic or geographic challenges that prevent them from being able to create IRS online accounts or receive electronic tax refunds. Having reviewed the IRS notice and called the IRS phone lines, we learned that there is no simple process for these taxpayers to request an immediate release of their refund by paper check without waiting at least 10 weeks,” Sewell and Davis wrote.

Taxpayers cannot update bank account information by calling the IRS toll-free number or speaking to an IRS representative. Instead, they will have to set up and use an online IRS account within 30 days of receiving their notice and providing banking information with account and routing numbers. If a person doesn’t respond to the notice, a paper check will be issued but only after six weeks.

You only have one chance to add or update your bank account information. If you make a mistake and the deposit is not accepted by the bank, you will have to wait for a paper check.

This process, the lawmakers said, is “causing undue hardship on missions of Americans.”

The lawmakers have requested additional information from the IRS, including if delayed refunds will include interest from the IRS, how many notices have been sent and how many paper checks have been mailed to date.

IRS: Here’s how to respond to CP53E

The IRS has provided step-by-step directions if you receive a CP53E notification:

Access or establish your online account by visiting your account to add or update your bank account information.

After completing the process, allow 2-5 days for your refund information to update online. Use the Where’s My Refund tool to check your refund status.

You will receive a message indicating your bank account update was successful. If there are any issues with your changes, you will receive an error message. Read all messages carefully and follow any instructions given.