The first time I saw Tommy Fulton, he was sitting in a plastic chair at a Henrico County assistance office in Richmond, Virginia, filling out paperwork with the focused intensity of someone who does not ask for help easily. A social worker there had suggested I speak with him — she thought his story might resonate with families who believe the tax system exists to punish the middle class. She was not entirely wrong to think that.
Tommy is 32 years old, a petroleum engineer, and the kind of man who uses phrases like “I’ll figure it out” the way other people use punctuation. He and his wife have three children under the age of nine. She stays home with the kids. He carries the household on a salary that, in any other context, might sound comfortable — until you hear the full list of what it has to cover.
The Refund That Was Already Spent Before It Arrived
When I sat down with Tommy Fulton in early March of this year, he had been waiting 47 days for a federal tax refund of $4,218. He had filed electronically on January 27th, selected direct deposit, and received the standard IRS confirmation that his return was accepted. The projected refund date the IRS Where’s My Refund tool showed was February 17th.
That date came and went. Then another week passed. Then another.
The $4,218 was not a windfall for Tommy’s family — it was a plan. He had already mentally allocated $1,400 toward replacing the homeowner’s insurance his carrier dropped in late 2024 after a water damage claim. Another $900 was earmarked for catching up on a Roth IRA contribution he had never actually opened. The rest was going toward a transmission repair on the family’s 2017 minivan.
“I know how that sounds,” Tommy told me, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “I know I should have savings. But when you’re one income and three kids, the money goes where the fire is. There’s always a fire.”
What the IRS Tracker Actually Tells You — and What It Doesn’t
Tommy’s refund showed “Return Received” from the day he filed. For the first three weeks, the second bar — “Refund Approved” — never illuminated. He refreshed the IRS app daily, sometimes twice. He called the IRS helpline on February 22nd and waited on hold for two hours and fourteen minutes before reaching an agent who told him only that his return was “under review” and that he should allow up to 60 days.
What no one told Tommy — and what the tracker does not explain — is that returns claiming the Child Tax Credit or the Earned Income Tax Credit are subject to additional verification requirements under the PATH Act. The IRS is legally restricted from issuing those refunds before mid-February, and any return that triggers an identity verification flag can be pulled into manual processing without automatic notification to the filer.
Tommy’s return had claimed the Child Tax Credit for all three of his children, totaling $6,000 in credits. A discrepancy in the way his employer reported his wages on a W-2 — a transposed digit in his Social Security number — had flagged the return for manual identity review. He would not learn this specific detail until week seven.
The Insurance Problem Nobody Warned Him About
The delayed refund was painful on its own. But it collided with a separate crisis that had been building since October 2024, when Tommy’s homeowner’s insurance carrier — a mid-size regional provider — sent a non-renewal notice following a $6,300 water damage claim he had filed in August. Virginia allows insurers to non-renew policies after claims under certain conditions, and Tommy’s policy lapsed on November 15th.
For nearly four months, the Fulton family’s home had no property insurance. Tommy had gotten two quotes for replacement coverage — one at $2,100 annually and one at $2,800 — but both required an upfront premium payment he did not have sitting in a checking account. He was waiting on the tax refund to cover it.
The retirement savings issue is, by Tommy’s own description, the thing he thinks about at 2 a.m. He has no 401(k) through his current employer — a mid-size energy services contractor that does not offer one — and no IRA of any kind. At 32, with three dependents and a stay-at-home spouse, he told me he has never made a single retirement contribution. According to SSA.gov’s retirement planning resources, Social Security alone is designed to replace roughly 40% of pre-retirement income for average earners — a fact that visibly unsettled Tommy when I mentioned it.
“I always figured I’d deal with that later,” he said. “But later keeps moving.”
Week Seven: The Letter That Explained Everything
On March 18th — 50 days after Tommy filed — a CP05 notice arrived at his Richmond home. The letter, printed on IRS letterhead, explained that the agency was reviewing his return to verify his income, tax withholding, tax credits, and Social Security number. It gave him no specific action to take, only a request to wait an additional 60 days before contacting the IRS again.
Tommy told me he nearly filed an amended return out of frustration — a move that would have reset the entire clock and delayed things further. “I was ready to just start over,” he said. “My brother-in-law told me to file a 1040-X and I was like, yeah, let’s do it. I’m glad I didn’t.” Filing an amended return while the original is still under review is one of the most common ways filers accidentally extend their wait, according to IRS guidance.
Thirteen days after the CP05 letter arrived, on March 31st, the full $4,218 landed in his checking account without any further communication from the IRS. No explanation of what triggered the review. No letter confirming it was resolved. Just money, appearing on a Tuesday morning.
What Tommy Did — and Did Not — Do With the Money
When I followed up with Tommy by phone on April 4th, he had purchased the homeowner’s insurance policy — the $2,100 option — and paid for the van’s transmission repair, which came in at $1,340 instead of the estimated $900. That left him with approximately $778 from the refund.
The Roth IRA he had planned to open? It did not happen. “I keep saying I’ll do it when things calm down,” he told me. “Things don’t calm down.” He is aware, in an abstract way, that the IRS allows tax-advantaged retirement contributions through vehicles like a traditional or Roth IRA, and that the 2025 contribution limit is $7,000 for individuals under 50. He just has not taken the step.
There is something almost defiant in how Tommy frames his situation. He is not unintelligent — he runs stress calculations on petroleum infrastructure for a living. He understands compound interest. He simply does not believe the systems designed to help people like him were built with people like him in mind. That stubbornness has cost him — the months without homeowner’s insurance were a genuine legal and financial exposure — but it is also what kept him from making the amended return mistake that would have pushed his refund into May.
When I left the assistance office that first afternoon, Tommy shook my hand and said one more thing I have not been able to stop thinking about: “I filed correctly. I paid what I owed. I claimed what I was owed. And I still had to fight for two months to get my own money back. That’s the part nobody tells you about.”
He is not wrong. The 21-day promise the IRS makes to electronic filers is real — for straightforward returns. But returns with multiple dependents, refundable credits, or any data mismatch enter a different track, one with no guaranteed timeline and minimal proactive communication. For a family running on one income with no financial cushion, 63 days is not an inconvenience. It is a crisis in slow motion.
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