I am wondering what the hold up is on my federal tax return

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
May 14, 2026
1 reply
18 views

It said within 3 weeks to receive our return. It’s been well over that amount of time

TurboTax Online

mesquitebean

Level 15

The IRS says that most people who efile and choose direct deposit will receive their refund within 21 days. But sometimes it takes longer. A significant number of returns require more processing for various reasons, some chosen at random. Here are some things you can check before phoning the IRS:

First, if you efiled, be sure your efiled return was accepted. If using Online TurboTax, you can check at the Tax Home page. Does it show as accepted, rejected, printed, started, ready to mail, or something else?

If that showed your return was accepted for processing, you can track your Federal refund at the IRS "Where's My Refund" tool. Is there any message there?

https://www.irs.gov/refunds

NOTE: If you filed by mail, it can take 4 weeks just to show up in that tool.

The IRS refund tracker tool normally uses 3 stages:

Return received and is being processed.
Refund approved.
Refund sent and an expected deposit date.

If that tool shows your refund is still being processed, and since it's been longer than the usual 21 days, you can phone the IRS, if you wish, to see if they can tell you anything about the delay.

IRS: 800-829-1040 (7AM-7 PM local time) Monday-Friday