Like many first-time homebuyers in 2008, David Rogers of Mexico thought the federal government’s program was a good deal.

In an effort to boost plummeting home sales during the recession, the government offered homebuyers like Rogers what was essentially a no-interest loan up to $7,500. Participants have to repay the credit over 15 years.

The problem, according to Rogers and the IRS, is that processing the extra paperwork in the program is taking time and delaying tax returns, even for electronic filers.

In Rogers’ case the delay is creating a hardship. He filed his return in mid-February. His approximately $7,000 refund has been delayed by at least seven weeks.

“The delay is killing us financially,” said Rogers, who lost his job two years ago and is self-employed. Rogers and his wife, a teacher, have three children.

“We’re two months behind on the mortgage and one month behind on the car payment,” he said.

It’s unclear how widespread the problem is. Peggy Riley, a spokeswoman for the Internal Revenue Service, said the agency doesn’t keep statistics on how many filers in the first-time homebuyers program have been affected.

However, the number of affected filers is significant enough to warrant an alert from the IRS and some attention from The New York Times.

Gene King, a spokesman for the H&R Block tax-preparation company, said more than 1 million people participated in the program in 2008.

King said he was unsure how many H&R Block customers had been affected. However, he said his company had received a number of calls.

According to the IRS website, the processing snag primarily affects participants in the federal program who bought their homes in 2008. The issue is related to Form 5405 and married/filing jointly taxpayers who filed before Feb. 22.

According to the IRS alert, the agency has been forced to manually process the forms. The agency says most affected taxpayers should expect their returns by April 5, and others the following week, assuming the forms are filled out correctly.

April 5 can’t come soon enough for Rogers, who said he’d already been told he would receive his refund by March 21. When the check didn’t arrive, he was told to check back in another four weeks.

“At this point, I have no idea when the refund is coming,” Rogers said.

Taxpayers expecting refunds can visit irs.gov and click the link “Where’s my refund?” to check the status of their returns.

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