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

The typical U.S. tax refund, which averaged $3,200 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 IRS accepting tax returns starting Jan. 23, the agency has a backlog of about 10 million returns yet to process.