Federal and State Taxes still at Accepted Status

[Bluelex18]

I filed my Taxes using Turbo Tax on Feb 7th and the Federal was accepted on the 13th and the State was accepted on 18th of February.  I'm just wondering what is taking them so long to go from Accepted to Approved and since it's all electronically done what else would they be checking for???  I'm just curious... does it just stay in limbo until about 21 days after you filed to get to approved??...

[AkinaLO]

After acceptance, the next step is for the government to approve your refund.

First, they look for things like back taxes and unpaid child support. If they find any debts, they'll offset (reduce) your refund to cover the outstanding amount. 

Once they are satisfied that you have no outstanding debts, they will approve and then issue your refund.

[SweetieJean]

and keep in mind that the IRS computer are processing many millions of tax returns (both personal and business), so that takes time.

In addition, the IRS performs a number of reasonableness checks, the details of which they do not disclose.  But here are some ideas:  Are your deductions reasonable relative to your income?  Has there been a significant change from last year?  Is a 20 year old taxpayer claiming to support 4 dependents on a $15,000 income?  You get the idea.