It means the IRS has your return and is working on it.
Nothing more and nothing less. You just need to wait.
Refunds that include certain credits are released later than refunds without those credits even if they were all filed before Mid-February.
According to the IRS:
“If you claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), you can expect to get your refund by February 27 if:
HOWEVER-
You say the mother and biological father take turns claiming the child.
Sometimes there's more to it than that.
Normally the Custodial Parent (the parent the child lives with more than half the year) claims the child.
The Custodial Parent can give the other parent Form 8332 in which case the non-custodial parent can claim the child.
In your situation, if you supplied more than half the support for the mother and the child, you and the mother are not married, and the mother and child lived with you for more than half the year, you should be able to claim the child and mother as dependents.
You have not indicated the filing status you used this year, Single, Married, or Head of Household?
You refer to this child as a "Step-Son" but you don't say if you are married to his mother.
If you are married, you do NOT claim the mother as a dependent, she is your spouse. You file Married Filing Jointly and the son is your step-son.
If you are NOT married, the child is NOT a step-son. He could still be claimed as a dependent (as well as the mother), but not as your step-son. If this is the case, you would file Single. The unrelated child would not make you eligible to file head of Household.
If you are NOT married, the child is NOT a step-son but you also have a biological child born in 2023 whom you supply more than half their support and that child lives with you then both children (and mother) could still be claimed as dependents, and this biological child could make you eligible to file Head of Household.
If you only have this one child in the home, the child is not related to you and you filed as Head of Household, that might be flagged.
In this case, the IRS may notify you and make the change.
If the return is processed with no adjustments made by the IRS, you might need to amend your return.
Info on Head of Household
@Shawn1523
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