In normal times, the IRS says that most people will receive a Federal refund within 21 days if they efile and choose direct deposit. But these are far from normal times. With the Pandemic, IRS staffing shortages, increased duties of processing stimulus payments, and several late changes in tax laws, the IRS has been inundated for some time. There have been long delays at the IRS, especially for any returns that were filed by mail or any that needed any manual processing or further investigating. We can tell you how to check on it. Since we know nothing about what all you've done or haven't done, let's start at the beginning--a very good place to start.
If you efiled, you should double-check to be sure the Federal and state return (if applicable) were efiled successfully and accepted.
If you used Online TurboTax, you can sign into your Online Account and check the efile status at the Tax Home.
If that showed the Federal return was accepted, you can use the "Where's My Refund" tool at the IRS website below to monitor the status of your Federal refund.
https://www.irs.gov/Refunds
TIPS when using the IRS WMR tool:
- Be sure you enter the correct SSN and filing status.
- Be sure you are using only the Federal refund amount. Do not include any state refund or any total refund or net refund (Fed and State) that TurboTax may have provided on a screen.
- Look at your actual Federal return to get the Federal refund amount, i.e., your Form 1040, Line 35a.
- If the WMR Tool can't find your info, then you can also try phoning the IRS refund hotline. I've seen it work for some users when the WMR tool didn't. 800-829-1954
