Is it normal for turbo tax to say my refund was accepted but the irs does not?

[CatinaT1]

There could be a couple or reasons why you might be experiencing a delay;

1. First, the status might be pending for security reasons. This may be a sign that someone is trying to use your identity to file a tax return. The return has been placed on hold to give you an opportunity to cancel it if it doesn't belong to you. This can take up to 72 hours, after which your return will then be forwarded to the IRS, or if applicable, rejected. If rejected, you can then correct the rejection issue and resubmit. Please see this FAQ for reference.

2. Secondly, there could be a delay if your return has various refundable credits, such as the Earned Income Credit.

Note: Both instances may be applicable. That is, you could have a hold for security reasons first. And additionally for verification of the refundable credits in your return. In this case, delays might extend beyond 72 hours.

[SteamTrain]

And TTX never knows if you "Refund" was approved.

It only knows and states that your tax Return was accepted by the IRS for further processing.

And when TTX says tax "Return" was accepted...that means your tax filing was accepted...

In official tax wording a tax "Return" is your tax file data.  "Return" does not mean "Refund".

[bp1976]

They might want to clarify that statment cause that's confusing.

[SteamTrain]

True...they could just say "Tax Data File" was accepted.

But TTX is using the same terminology that the IRS has been using pretty much since income taxes started.

The tax paperwork, forms, etc, that you send to them.....the IRS has always called that a "Tax Return", irrespective of whether there was a refund involved...or an extra payment to them was required.

[bp1976]

The question had nothing to do with what it is  called. It had to do with turbo tax saying they accepted it. And the IRS not  saying they accepted it yet. However...yes....it should be Tax Data file...cause it is not always a return lol.

[SteamTrain]

The only other thing I can think of is that the IRS usually says to wait at least 24 hrs before checking status on the IRS website.   i.e. there may be a delay before the IRS-Taxpayer interface shows what they transmitted to TTX.  (probably 24 hrs after TTX indicated it was "Accepted").  So, what does the IRS say about your tax return now?

Of course the first couple weeks of filing, the IRS computers are massively overloaded with early-filed tax returns, and there could be information response posting slowdowns for that too as they are likely throttling how many tax returns they process...until they are certain everything is working properly.