Where's My Refund? Tracking US tax refund times 2016

[geekette]

There was some chatter in another thread about how long it takes to get a refund, for those of us lucky/dumb enough to get one.  Here's my data for this year:

Filed the morning of 2/11 and accepted within a couple hours.

Just today, 2/25, status on the Where's My Refund page changed to approved, and "Your tax refund is scheduled to be sent to your bank by February 29, 2016"

[thingamabobs]

Filed 2/18, accepted same day. Checked 2/24 and says direct deposit should hit 2/26.

[Vanguards and Lentils]

Filed on February 12, status changed to approved on somewhere between 2/23-25, and direct deposit should arrive 2/29.

Can't wait to have a lavish refund party!

[terran]

Filed on February 12, status changed to approved on somewhere between 2/23-25, and direct deposit should arrive 2/29.

That's more like the timeline ours followed. Schedule C, maxing out wife's 403b for the first time, a new solo 401k, and IRA recharacterization all probably required a little more scrutiny.

[chemistk]

We filed on Feb 1st, got accepted a few hours later. Direct Deposit showed up on Feb. 10th. State return took all the way until today to appear.

[protostache]

Filed sometime the first week of February, still sitting at "processing" :(

[FIRE_Buckeye]

Filed 2/18, accepted same day. Checked 2/24 and says direct deposit should hit 2/26.

Was about the same for me, a week turnaround.
Thanks TaxAct.

[geekette]

Filed on February 12, status changed to approved on somewhere between 2/23-25, and direct deposit should arrive 2/29.

That's more like the timeline ours followed. Schedule C, maxing out wife's 403b for the first time, a new solo 401k, and IRA recharacterization all probably required a little more scrutiny.

Ours (similar timeline) was a pretty big refund due to ACA subsidies and withholding on stock options, which may have slowed ours down.

[jorjor]

Ours was processed and hit our bank account within about 48 hours...

...of course, we owed money. Funny how much quicker they are when they are receiving the payment than giving it.

[Ftao93]

I got Federal and State within like 10 days.   I used freetaxusa.  It was painless, cost me $12

[Travis]

Ours was processed and hit our bank account within about 48 hours...

...of course, we owed money. Funny how much quicker they are when they are receiving the payment than giving it.

Like anybody else is different ;)

We filed on Monday (22 Feb). It's still being reviewed.

Edit: As of 29 Feb, it says I should see it posted to the bank between the 2nd and 7th.

[teen persuasion]

I just tried to use "Where's My Refund?" on my PC, and there was a red slash thru the https to show it was NOT secure.  No matter where I linked to it from, I got the same thing, so not going to enter my SSN.  I couldn't find anywhere to report it, either.

Just came to this thread to check the link (on my kindle) and it is secure.  What's going on?

[Psychstache]

Used Taxact. Filed on 2/20. Accepted immediately after. Refund in the bank on 2/26.

[protostache]

I just tried to use "Where's My Refund?" on my PC, and there was a red slash thru the https to show it was NOT secure.  No matter where I linked to it from, I got the same thing, so not going to enter my SSN.  I couldn't find anywhere to report it, either.

Just came to this thread to check the link (on my kindle) and it is secure.  What's going on?

What browser and OS are you using? Desktop browsers sometimes have varying opinions on what is and is not secure. For what it's worth, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox (44, just downloaded to test this) on Mac OS X 10.10.5 show a green lock on these URL:

https://www.irs.gov/Refunds

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp

[StacheInAFlash]

Filed late in the evening of Tuesday the 16th. Received state refund on Monday the 22nd and federal on Wednesday the 24th.

[teen persuasion]

I just tried to use "Where's My Refund?" on my PC, and there was a red slash thru the https to show it was NOT secure.  No matter where I linked to it from, I got the same thing, so not going to enter my SSN.  I couldn't find anywhere to report it, either.

Just came to this thread to check the link (on my kindle) and it is secure.  What's going on?

What browser and OS are you using? Desktop browsers sometimes have varying opinions on what is and is not secure. For what it's worth, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox (44, just downloaded to test this) on Mac OS X 10.10.5 show a green lock on these URL:

https://www.irs.gov/Refunds

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp

Windows 7 and Chrome.  Everything else was fine, with a green lock.  As soon as I got to the data entry page, it was not secure.  The links you have listed match what I saw, too.

[use2betrix]

Used turbotax. Accepted February 22nd, looks like it should arrive March 9th.

I'm getting $10,735 back so that's exciting. I got married at the end of the year and I made about 10x what my wife did last year, so that dropped us down a bracket :D

[fattest_foot]

I had to mail in copies this year (I don't remember why, but for both there was a reason).

It's been three weeks and neither system even shows they've been received. In fact, the California website says expect a refund in 3-4 months.

[FIRE me]

I had to mail in copies this year (I don't remember why, but for both there was a reason).

It's been three weeks and neither system even shows they've been received. In fact, the California website says expect a refund in 3-4 months.

I've never e-filed, because I don't want to share my tax information with third parties. This year I did fill out the direct deposit section of the tax form, my first year for that.

I mailed my forms on February 8, and Where's My Refund says it should be deposited at my bank tomorrow. So one month, almost exactly.

[protostache]

Update: Still "Your tax return is being processed". Should I be concerned?

[forummm]

Update: Still "Your tax return is being processed". Should I be concerned?

Did you cheat? If not, they'll get it to you eventually or provide their reasons for amending your return.

Ours was processed and hit our bank account within about 48 hours...

...of course, we owed money. Funny how much quicker they are when they are receiving the payment than giving it.

Yeah, they are amazingly fast at processing payment checks. I'm sure they process the check even before they route the return for review. We owe so I've had my return sitting on my desk for over a month. I'll mail it in a couple days.

[robartsd]

I worked as a student assistant processing returns at my state tax agency one season. Early in the season we were processing mostly refund returns because people that owe tend not to file until near the deadline. For a few weeks after the filing deadline I don't think we processed any refund returns. It seemed that the agency prioritized getting the money (not that I expect that that surprises anyone). In May, there was a last big push of refund returns to process because the agency needed to get the refunds out in time to avoid paying interest on late refunds.

[protostache]

Update: Still "Your tax return is being processed". Should I be concerned?

Did you cheat? If not, they'll get it to you eventually or provide their reasons for amending your return.

Our accountant says no. My non-expert reading of the ACA rules says maybe. I guess we'll see.

[robartsd]

Did you cheat? If not, they'll get it to you eventually or provide their reasons for amending your return.

Our accountant says no. My non-expert reading of the ACA rules says maybe. I guess we'll see.

The reasons for the "maybe" may cause the computer to spit it out for review making the process take longer than if it were automatically approved. Hopefully your accountant is right and the manual review will approve you return and authorize issue of your refund.

[forummm]

Update: Still "Your tax return is being processed". Should I be concerned?

Did you cheat? If not, they'll get it to you eventually or provide their reasons for amending your return.

Our accountant says no. My non-expert reading of the ACA rules says maybe. I guess we'll see.

I guess you'll find out. :)

What is the issue you are worried about?

And don't worry about it too much. As long as you didn't commit fraud, the worst case scenario is you owe more than you thought. And it's only money. They don't send you to jail unless you intentionally evaded taxes. They just want what you owe.

[seattlecyclone]

We e-filed on March 29th, direct deposit showed up on April 5th. One week; not bad!

[protostache]

Update: Still "Your tax return is being processed". Should I be concerned?

Did you cheat? If not, they'll get it to you eventually or provide their reasons for amending your return.

Our accountant says no. My non-expert reading of the ACA rules says maybe. I guess we'll see.

I guess you'll find out. :)

What is the issue you are worried about?

And don't worry about it too much. As long as you didn't commit fraud, the worst case scenario is you owe more than you thought. And it's only money. They don't send you to jail unless you intentionally evaded taxes. They just want what you owe.

My wife and I were eligible for (literally the worst possible) insurance for 5-6 months of the year when she was working full time. We bought our own off-exchange plan all year. Accountant had us claim it for all year. IIRC it could cost us a few thousand dollars if the IRS says we can't claim it.

[forummm]

Update: Still "Your tax return is being processed". Should I be concerned?

Did you cheat? If not, they'll get it to you eventually or provide their reasons for amending your return.

Our accountant says no. My non-expert reading of the ACA rules says maybe. I guess we'll see.

I guess you'll find out. :)

What is the issue you are worried about?

And don't worry about it too much. As long as you didn't commit fraud, the worst case scenario is you owe more than you thought. And it's only money. They don't send you to jail unless you intentionally evaded taxes. They just want what you owe.

My wife and I were eligible for (literally the worst possible) insurance for 5-6 months of the year when she was working full time. We bought our own off-exchange plan all year. Accountant had us claim it for all year. IIRC it could cost us a few thousand dollars if the IRS says we can't claim it.

You are under no obligation to take employer-provided coverage as long as you secure some other form of qualifying coverage, such as qualifying off-Marketplace coverage. Your insurer should have sent you a form 1095-B indicating that you had minimum essential coverage for all 12 months. That's all you need to prove that you met the coverage requirement.

If your coverage was not a full health plan or otherwise did not meet the minimum essential coverage requirement, then you have a different situation. In the future, simply procuring your coverage on the Marketplace via healthcare.gov will ensure that you get a qualifying plan. You could also ask your insurer whether your coverage meets the minimum essential coverage requirement (it really should state whether it does or not in plan materials as well).

[protostache]

You are under no obligation to take employer-provided coverage as long as you secure some other form of qualifying coverage, such as qualifying off-Marketplace coverage. Your insurer should have sent you a form 1095-B indicating that you had minimum essential coverage for all 12 months. That's all you need to prove that you met the coverage requirement.

Yeah, we're not going to get hit with the ACA penalty. I'm talking about the 1040 line 29 self-employment deduction. Her employer issued a 1095-C saying we were eligible to purchase minimum viable coverage for several months of 2015, which I understood to mean we couldn't deduct those months on line 29. Accountant disagreed, we went with his judgement.

[Travis]

Ours was processed and hit our bank account within about 48 hours...

...of course, we owed money. Funny how much quicker they are when they are receiving the payment than giving it.

Like anybody else is different ;)

We filed on Monday (22 Feb). It's still being reviewed.

Edit: As of 29 Feb, it says I should see it posted to the bank between the 2nd and 7th.

State of Colorado took 30 days to mail us a check.  Their website said "have not received" right up until the day they mailed it out to us even though it was electronically filed.