Know the Score on Tax Refund
Most tax refunds are issued in fewer than 21 calendar days, but if you filed a paper return, expect to wait four weeks or more for your refund. Where’s My Refund? Has the most up-to-date information available about your refund.
Refund amounts may be changed if corrections are made to your tax return. The IRS will send a notice explaining the changes. Many different factors affect the timing of your refund. Some tax returns take longer to process — those sent by mail, yes, but also those that:
Contain errors or are incomplete.
Are tagged for further review.
Are affected by identity theft or fraud.
Are referred to the IRS by a bank due to suspicious activity.
Include a claim for an Earned Income Tax Credit or an Additional Child Tax Credit.
The IRS cannot issue EITC or ACTC refunds before mid-February.
These refunds will be available in your bank account or on debit cards by February 28 if there are no other issues with your tax return and if you've chosen direct deposit.
Check Where's My Refund? for your personalized refund date.
Include Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, which can take up to 14 weeks to process.
Watch for queries
If the IRS needs more information to process your tax return, it will contact you by mail. Sometimes, though, the IRS may still be processing your tax return, correcting an error or researching suspicious activity noted by banks. In that case, even Where's My Refund? and telephone representatives will not be able to provide you with a specific refund date.
Call the IRS about your refund status only if Where's My Refund? directs you to contact the IRS. Where's My Refund? on IRS.gov and the IRS2Go mobile app remain the best ways to check the status of a refund. Both are updated by February 18 with projected deposit dates for most early EITC or ACTC refund filers.
Call the IRS's automated refund hotline, 800-829-1954, to initiate a refund trace if you've lost your refund check. You can also speak to an agent by calling 800-829-1040. If you're calling about a prior year's refund, visit Where's My Refund?, which will be able to give you updated information for previous years.
Start checking Where's My Refund? as follows:
24 hours after e-filing a tax return.
Four weeks after filing a paper return.
Up to six months after the date nonresident aliens report the appropriate income and withholding amounts on Form 1040-NR, U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return, to claim a refund of federal taxes withheld on income from a U.S. source. When you file the form, include documents substantiating any income and withholding amounts.
Where's My Refund? offers a personalized date after your tax return is processed and your refund is approved. It follows your tax return from receipt to completion and lets you know when your tax return is in received status and whether your refund is approved or sent.
Alerts on their way
When the IRS approves your refund, it sends the funds to your bank or directly to you via mail. Where's My Refund? will tell you when the refund was sent to your bank if you selected the direct deposit option. Expect to wait five days after the refund check is sent to your bank.
If the IRS is still reviewing your tax return, Where's My Refund? doesn't always display whether a tax return was received and a refund was approved and sent. Instead, it may display instructions or an explanation of what the IRS is doing. The refund tracker may not appear until the IRS completes its review of your tax return.
Where's My Refund? updates once per day, usually at night. It will not display your amended return's status. That information is at Where's My Amended Return?
Even though you've requested a direct deposit refund, sometimes you'll be sent a paper check because:
The IRS can only deposit refunds electronically into a joint account or accounts in your name or spouse's name.
A financial institution may reject a direct deposit.
The IRS cannot deposit more than three electronic refunds into a single financial account.
If you receive a refund that isn't from your tax account, the IRS urges you not to cash the refund check or spend the direct deposit refund. Send the refund back to the IRS.
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