DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — This week, one Madison man learned he will have to wait for more than a year to receive his tax refund after someone filed taxes under his name and requested a $22,000 refund. 

Brandon Boggs told News 2 that he got a call from his accountant earlier this year alerting him that someone had already filed taxes under his name. When he contacted the Internal Revenue Service, Boggs learned his identity was stolen and someone filed for a massive refund under his name.

“We got a call like early March saying, 'Hey, I tried to file your taxes for you. It wouldn't let me. It said you had already filed your taxes,' And I said 'Oh, that's weird,'” Boggs said. “I think $22,000 is the return they were looking for — ours is way lower than that.”

After contacting the IRS, he submitted a paper return to get his correct refund. Since then, he’s called the agency bi-weekly to check on the status of his return. 

“I called them this past Monday and said 'Hey, just following up to see where we're at,'" Boggs said. "And that's when they told me it'd be 493 days to get the tax return that we were owed."

Boggs said he was expecting a $5,800 refund, which he planned to use in part on a deposit for a 10-year anniversary trip for himself and his wife. However, he now doesn’t expect to see his refund until 2026. 

“My wife had recently lost her job in 2025, so she's being creative and coming up with new things to do, but the refund meant a lot to us," Boggs said. "We were going to celebrate our anniversary this year with this money."

Robyn Householder, President and CEO with the Better Business Bureau serving Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky, said tax-related identity theft is more common than you might expect. 

“Typically, the victim doesn't even know they've been scammed until they file their own taxes and they're rejected,” Householder said. 

She said the bad actor typically has at least your social security number and date of birth. However, the IRS won’t flag a tax return for other changes, such as a different address.  

“The other type of tax scam we see is false calls coming in where they're saying your taxes are past due,” Householder added.

If you are caught in one of these situations, Householder recommends contacting the IRS’ Taxpayer Advocacy Services Office. 

Even with the wrongful filing under his name, Boggs said the nearly 500-day delay in his return felt excessive.  

"I'm hopeful maybe sometime soon, but in reality it might be 2026 before we see this tax return,” Boggs said. 

Since his identity theft, Boggs said he also noticed fraudulent activity on his credit cards and immediately froze his credit.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/madison-man-tax-refund-delay/