"Everyone" who used TurboTax is not still waiting for their refunds. Many users have received their refunds. You are not seeing complaints from people who received their refunds because they do not post back here to tell everyone they got a refund. You only see posts from people who are having issues.
FROM THE IRS:
Please note that the IRS says its own system is lagging and you do not need to call the IRS about your refund.
Sadly, the IRS refund site is behaving erratically and is not always reliable this year. TurboTax has no control over this and cannot find out anything about your refund for you.
TurboTax gives you an estimated date for receiving your refund based on a 21 day average from your date of acceptance, but it can take longer. “21 days” is not a promise from TurboTax or the IRS. Many refunds are taking longer during the pandemic. The IRS is backlogged —-they are still trying to process millions of 2019 returns; and they received over 35 million e-files when e-filing opened for 2020 returns.
First, check your e-file status to see if your return was accepted:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/efile-status-lookup/
If accepted, they try to process it within three weeks but it can be longer. if you have earned income credit or additional child tax credit, it will be at least the end of February before you see your refund, due to the PATH act that requires that they hold your refund longer.
Once your federal return has been accepted by the IRS, only the IRS has any control. TurboTax does not receive any updates from the IRS. Your ONLY source of information about your refund now is the IRS.
You need your filing status, your Social Security number and the exact amount (line 34of your 2020 Form 1040) of your federal refund to track your Federal refund:
To track your state refund:
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899433-how-do-i-track-my-state-refund
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901548-why-do-some-refunds-take-longer-than-others
If you chose to have your TurboTax fees deducted from your federal refund, that will take some extra time, while the third party bank handles the refund processing.
https://www.irs.gov/refunds/tax-season-refund-frequently-asked-questions
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2840013-does-accepted-mean-my-refund-is-approved
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3397970-path-act-delayed-refunds-for-some-filers
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc152
Agreed - for some reason it is easier for people to blame the tax preparer than to acknowledge that it's the IRS that is behind. Between delays still from last year, stimulus checks, etc, the IRS is late.
I filed and was accepted on 2/12. Got my state refund the week of 3/1. No federal refund on 3.5 as expected. On 3/7 or 3/8, it changed to "pending," no bars, no tax topic. I did speak with a human at the IRS who told me that there is nothing wrong with my return, they are just way behind. She advised that they expected to be caught up by this Friday.
So they had us wait so they could update the software yet also told everyone to file early, and then got hit with a holiday weekend and a massive backlog. It absolutely stinks - we've given the gov't an interest free loan for a year and they can't manage to get us our money on time. Hopefully they will really get it sorted out promptly.