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When Will I Get My Tax Refund?

Updated: 11/17/2009
Article ID: 610

Where is my refund?

You've filed your tax return and are expecting a tax refund. Congratulations!

Now you want to know when you're going to get your refund. Click one of these links to find out.

When to expect your Federal tax refund

When you complete your federal tax return, TurboTax gives you an estimated refund date based on the IRS Refund Cycle Chart.

To track your federal tax refund, use the IRS's very popular Where's My Refund? online tool. If you don't receive your refund within 28 days from the original IRS mailing date listed, you can also use Where's My Refund? to initiate a refund trace.

If you'd rather pick up the phone, call the IRS Refund Hotline (800) 829-1954 or their Automated Information Line (800) 829-4477 to get your federal refund status.

When to expect your State tax refund

State refunds are processed by each individual state, so processing times will vary. As a general rule, you can expect your state tax refund within 30 days of the electronic filing date or the postmark date.

To get the status of your state tax refund, contact your state tax board. Go to State Tax Websites and click the links to get your refund status and/or your state tax board's website.

Why is my refund taking so long?

So your e-filed return was accepted, or maybe you mailed in your tax return. It's been a while, and you're still waiting for your tax refund. What's going on?

Believe it or not, the #1 reason for delayed tax refunds is incorrect or missing address information. Undeliverable refund checks eventually come back to the issuer, who then has to track down the correct information and re-issue the check, delaying the refund by several weeks.

Tip: For future reference, a great tool for verifying your mailing address (not just your ZIP code) is the ZIP Code Lookup tool at the United States Postal Service website.
 

Other reasons for delayed refunds include, but are not limited to:

  • Incorrect bank account or routing numbers for direct-deposited refunds
  • Your tax return is under review (don't worry; your return may have been randomly selected)
  • Your state is experiencing a delay in issuing tax refunds. You can easily find out if your fellow taxpayers are in the same boat by visiting TurboTax Live Community and selecting your state from the left column (or search the Live Community Q&A, e.g., search for California AND refund or Louisiana AND refund).

 

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