If you have efiled and have a status of "pending", that is because the IRS has not yet accepted or rejected your efiled return for processing.
Except for a few test returns that are pulled for processing early, the IRS won't start processing
returns until January 29. So unless yours is one of the early test
returns, sometime after January 29 you should hear if your efiled
return was accepted or rejected.
See this FAQ: What does pending mean?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2562178-what-does-pending-mean
It's unclear
if the government shutdown will affect the IRS speed this year, but it
could if the shutdown is prolonged and if many IRS workers are
temporarily furloughed.
Here's another factor to consider which can affect your refund timing:
If you have EIC (earned income credit, aka EITC) or ACTC (additional child tax
credit), the IRS will start processing them on Jan. 29, but will not start releasing those refunds until February
15. That means people with those types of credits may not start receiving their
refunds until around February 27.
You can monitor the status of the efiled return by logging back into your account, or by using this tool:
https://shop.turbotax.intuit.com/efile/efile_status_lookup.jsp
Once the IRS has accepted your efiled return sometime after January 29 (unless yours is pulled early as a test), you can monitor the refund status at this IRS website. It will NOT show up there until it has been accepted.
http://www.irs.gov/Refunds
