Want your tax refund ASAP? Here are 5 pitfalls that can delay your check.

The typical U.S. tax refund, which averaged $3,2000 in 2022, is often the biggest check a household receives all year. And with inflation still high, some measures show that roughly a third of Americans are counting on their 2023 refund checks to make ends meet.

But getting that payment in hand has proved to be elusive for the millions of taxpayers whose returns were caught up in delays at the IRS during the pandemic. Even with tax filing set to open on Monday, the IRS has a backlog of about 10 million returns yet to process. 

To cope with painfully high inflation, about half of families surveyed by financial services firm Primerica said they have had to tap  their emergency savings. That makes many taxpayers eager to get their hands on their refunds, Mark Steber, chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt, told CBS MoneyWatch.