You’ll have to wait longer for it.  The first time home buyer credit is the culprit. The IRS has been swamped with refund claims for tax year 2008 from folks who purchased a home this year but opted not to wait until they filed for 2009 to claim the credit. Not surprisingly, scammers have filed fraudulent refund claims for the credit, so the Revenue Service is giving additional scrutiny to claims for refund based on the home buyer credit.

The Service says that the resulting backlog has increased the processing time for 1040-Xs to at least 12 to 16 weeks, compared with the usual eight to 12 weeks.

If you are filing an amended tax return for 2008 to claim the home buyer credit, you can avoid some of the delay by attaching a copy of the HUD-1 settlement sheet.