My tax return was accepted 16 days ago, but does not yet show approved. Is this normal?

[AmyW]

The IRS started processing tax returns on January 29th, which is much later than previous filing seasons, and they have a large accumulation of tax returns to process which has caused a delay in some taxpayers receiving their refunds.

After your return has been successfully transmitted, then it will be accepted, processed, and approved. After the approval stage, your refund will be issued. 

After your tax return has been accepted, any refund will typically be issued within 21 days. 

If your tax return has been accepted and you have checked Where’s My Refund, and haven’t seen a status update, that is typical because the IRS won’t have record of the return until it is in the processing stage, so no need to worry.

If you would like to find the status of your refund you can visit the IRS website at the link here.