My Turbo Tax says my return has been accepted, but the IRS website says it hasn't been? Is this normal?

[remyniccar]

What if it has been almost a year and I still haven’t received my refund from the IRS for 2020. On TurboTax it says it was accepted and the IRS had received it. The IRS refund status results says they cannot provide any information about my refund. Not sure if I’ll ever get my money at this point. What a joke. 

[xmasbaby0]

@remyniccar

TurboTax does not get any information at all from the IRS after you file your tax return.  No one at TurboTax knows what the IRS is doing with your return.

There have been a lot of delays for 2020  federal refunds.  Did you mail your return or e-file?

If you mailed it:

MAILED RETURNS

If  you mail a tax return (or a payment) to the IRS, it is a good idea to use a mailing service that will track it like UPS or certified mail so you will know it was received.

When you mail a tax return, you need to attach any documents showing tax withheld, such as your W-2’s or any 1099’s. 

TurboTax will not know anything about your mailed return, and will continue to show “Ready to Mail” on your account.  TurboTax will not know that you put your tax return in an envelope and took it to a mailbox.  TurboTax does not get updates on mailed  (or e-filed) returns.

The IRS refund site is only showing information about 2021 refunds now so it will not show anything about your 2020 refund.

Or......

Did you e-file?  Did you click a big orange button that said “Transmit my returns now?”

When you e-file your federal return you will receive two emails from TurboTax.  The first one will say that your return was submitted.  The second email will tell you if your federal return was accepted or rejected.  If you e-filed a state return, there will be a third email to tell you if the state accepted or rejected your state return.

Does your TT account say that your return was accepted?  Or does it say something else—like “rejected”, “printed” or “ready to mail?”  If it does not say accepted then it was not filed unless you put it in an envelope yourself and mailed it.

 TurboTax does not mail your tax return for you.

If your e-file was accepted:

If you chose to have your fees deducted from your federal refund:

Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, LLC  (SBTPG) is the bank that handles the Refund Processing Service when you choose to have your TurboTax fees deducted from your refund. This option also has an additional charge from the bank that processes the transaction. 

You can contact them SBTPG, toll-free, at 1-877-908-7228 or go to their secure website www.sbtpg.com 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2580357-who-provides-the-refund-processing-service

To call the IRS:IRS:  800-829-1040  hours 7 AM - 7 PM local time Mon-Fri

Listen to each menu before making the selection.

First choose your language. Press 1 for English.

Then do NOT choose the first choice re: "Refund", or it will send you to an automated phone line.

Instead, press 2 for "personal income tax".

Then press 1 for "form, tax history, or payment".  

Then press 3 "for all other questions."

Then press 2 "for all other questions."  It should then transfer you to an agent.

TAX ADVOCATE

At the following IRS website, find the USA map and click on your state, and it will give you the number of your area's IRS Taxpayer Advocate.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Contact-a-Local-Taxpayer-Advocate

Also see this article for more info on how the Taxpayer Advocate Service works::
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc104.html

[DanielV01]

@remyniccar  While what I have to say may not be comforting, it is the truth.  The IRS, and only the IRS, is responsible for processing and paying your refund.  And they had major, major issues last year that has seen processing take much, much longer than normal, with more than a few people still waiting to get their refund with little or no information on the IRS website.  The only way to get anything resolved is to call them, but they are grossly understaffed and behind, so what I suggest is to call  first thing in the morning your time.  Hopefully with an agent you can find out what is going on and push it through.

[TacoNinja547]

Holy rudeness... 

[frannymv85]

Help me out with this please.

I filed my 2021 return with TurboTax on Jan 10th (yes, that early), and I received a text/email from TurboTax that my return was accepted on Jan 18th (which I thought was odd since I've read multiple times that the IRS wasn't looking them over until the 24th). Well, its been days, and I've looked up my status refund on the IRS website, and it doesn't even say it was received. I don't have that pretty orange tracker thing that it usually has. All it says is that they can't file refunds for Child Tax and EIC until mid-feb. No other information about my return.

Here's the kicker:  I helped my sister file her taxes with TurboTax on the 21st, and she has the Child Tax and EIC as well. When she checked her refund status on the IRS website today, that pretty orange timeline was there saying that it was received. 

What should I do? I've contacted TurboTax but they don't know why the IRS doesn't show if they have received it. 

Any ideas as to what I should do or what you think is going on? I plan on calling the IRS tomorrow morning to see if they at least have it. Hopefully I get some answers, but any insight from others will help.

[Vanessa A]

If you got a message from TurboTax saying your return was accepted and when you log into your return it says accepted, the issue will be on the IRS side.  You would need to call them to find out what is happening.  However, it is only 3 days after they started accepting returns so you may want to wait a few more days before trying to call.  

[ohmark]

Filed 2019 return on time in April 2020, with payment. Turbotax confirmed filing accepted by IRS.

Still not processed by IRS. IRS transcript says payment received, but no tax return. Repeated calls to IRS were waste of a lot of time.

Finally, in 11/2021 called IRS, and phone agent referred matter to Taxpayer Advocate and said the TA would call me.  About a month later, TA called and left message that demonstrated complete incompetence and failure to read the IRS agent's notes on problem. Adding to incompetence, the TA failed to leave a name, or any phone number, or any other contact info. Calling back to the phone number on the message simply led to the main IRS number.

In early 1/2022 called IRS and spoke to an IRS phone agent. She reviewed IRS records and confirmed that my return was received by IRS on the date that Turbotax had confirmed it was accepted in 2020. Agent said it had just been sitting there, and could not offer any explanation. Mentioned backlog, but said backlog should not have required a 16 month wait.  She said she would send detailed message to department that was supposed to be processing my return and this should take care of problem.

Just checked my 2019 IRS transcript again; return transcript show no return filed, and account transcript instead of showing the info I saw before (record of payment), now just says "NA".

Still waiting.

[Anonymous_]

---

@ohmark wrote:

Still waiting.

---

You are not alone with respect to 2019. You have even more company with respect to 2020.

[Blake92]

Why is turbo 6ax saying that my yax exiles were accepted and I already got my taxes but irs is saying my efile wasn't accepted qhen it was I'm not trying to be sitting longer then needed when I fixed my taxes the first week the w2 was sent out why is one thing saying  accepted and the outher not

[fanfare]

I'm still waiting for my 2020 refund.

IRS just now mailed me a letter stating they approved my 2020 Form 1040-X.

I have no idea what that means. I never filed a 1040-X.

[MichelleLO]

Please reach out to TurboTax Customer Support for assistance. Support will be able to confirm the status of your e-filed returns. 

Please follow the instructions in this TurboTax FAQ to contact Customer Support: What is the TurboTax phone number?

@Blake92

Form 1040-X is the form used to amend a tax return.

@fanfare

[jimLwjWlpj]

TurboTax only indicates I haven't filed yet, but I'm sure I did 2 or 3 days ago.  I paid for the Tax Defense and have already received an email from them.  Is there a delay before my TurboTax program recognizes that I already filed?

[HeatherPLO]

To double-check your e-filing, please see this Help Article for further assistance.  

[Tinaj881]

I filed my return by mail than realized I didn’t add income it came to my new address. I already mailed in my return but it says there is no information about my return on IRS and it makes me put in estimated date filed and if I efiled or mailed. Can I refile since they have not accepted my return yet??

[xmasbaby0]

No wait for the IRS to process your mailed return.  Sending in another return before they process the first one will only confuse things and delay it all.