Where’s My Refund?

With millions of tax refunds going out each week, the Internal Revenue Service shared that recent improvements to Where’s My Refund? on IRS.gov remains the best way to check the status of a refund.

The Where’s My Refund? tool provides taxpayers with three key pieces of information: IRS confirmation of receiving a federal tax return, approval of the tax refund and issuing date of the approved tax refund. Information for returns from tax years 2023, 2022 and 2021 is available.

Where’s My Refund? enhancements

In filing season 2024, taxpayers will benefit from important updates that reduce the need for many taxpayers to call the IRS and include:

• Messages with detailed refund status in plain language.
• Seamless access on mobile devices and with the IRS2Go app.
• Notifications indicating whether the IRS needs additional information.

How to use Where’s My Refund?

To use Where’s My Refund?, taxpayers must enter their Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification number, filing status and the exact whole dollar amount of their expected refund from the original tax return for the year they’re checking.

Once the IRS acknowledges receipt of a return, refund status information is typically available within:

• 24 hours after receipt of a taxpayer’s e-filed tax year 2023 return.
• Three to four days after receipt of an e-filed tax year 2022 or 2021 return.
• Four weeks after mailing a paper return.

Taxpayers should note that the IRS updates the tool once a day, usually overnight, so there’s no need to check more often.

Refund delivery

Many different factors may affect the timing of refund delivery:

• The tax return has errors, requires additional review or is incomplete.
• The return needs a correction to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Additional Child Tax Credit.
• The time between the IRS issuing the refund and the bank posting it to an account may vary since processing times fluctuate.

IRS phone and walk-in representatives can only research the status of a refund if:

• 21 days or more have passed since a return was filed electronically.
• Six weeks or more have passed since a return was mailed.
• Where’s My Refund? tells the taxpayer to contact the IRS.

Our team is available to answer any questions you may have regarding your filing process. Reminder, the deadline for most taxpayers to file a tax return, pay any tax due or request an extension to file is Monday, April 15.

Source: irs.gov