California Refund Still Pending - Received Status = Unknown

[maburden]

I filed my California tax return on 1/16/2020 via TurboTax.  It is still showing up at Pending. 

California Return

Received by TurboTax:

Thursday, Jan 16th 2020 11:37 AM EST

Received by California:

Unknown

Filing status changed to: Pending

Thursday, Jan 16th 2020 11:37 AM EST

Checking the status of my return on the CA FTB website it says my 2019 tax return has not been received.  Is this normal?  Should I just wait it out or are there are steps I should take?

[Bsch4477]

Wait.  Even the IRS will not process returns until January 27. 

[SusanY1]

It is normal for your returns to be pending at this time.  The IRS is not yet accepting eFiled tax returns.  Before your state tax return can be transmitted, the IRS must accept your federal return.

Your returns are stored on our secure servers until the IRS retrieves them.    

You can check on the status of the IRS eFile system here: IRS 2020 filing season information.

[maburden]

Is this expected even if the Federal Return is marked as accepted already?  It shows accepted in TurboTax and it is processing on the IRS website.

[SusanY1]

Yes, this is still normal.  It can take a few days after the IRS accepts your return for it to transmit to the state. It can then take up to an additional 48 hours for the state to accept or reject the return.  

It appears that your return was selected for processing by the IRS prior to the official tax season opening day.  It is common for a select number of returns to go through in test batches, and those batches may take some additional time to filter through to the state system.  

Everything is working as it should at this point!

[mshaf]

Mine is still pending.  I know Turbotax screwed up the CA forms on some people I know and they waited a long time before finally getting their submission rejected.  When they logged back into TurboTax all they had to do was resend since TurboTax fixed the error in a software update.  Would be nice if TurboTax would give their customers a heads up that this happened and they should expect the same.  Next year I will look into different software.  Too many issues with Turbotax now two years in a row.  You should offer a refund for the CA fee Turbotax!

[Johnboy777]

Mine California Tax return is still stuck pending in TurboTax. I went to the website and entered my info and they cannot even pull it up there.  

[mshaf]

I'll let you know if mine updates.  As of Tuesday 12:37pm Pacific it is still pending.

[Johnboy777]

ok  thanks!

[Captainron1960]

My California State Income Tax is still pending, Federal Accepted on February 12th, California still pending as of 02/16/21.

[Johnboy777]

Same, my fed was accepted on the 12th.

[maburden]

California is very slow this year for some reason.  I filed mine on 1/14/21 through the CA FTB website (I skipped TurboTax for state filing this year because it took so long last year) and it is still processing.  I called them today and they said it's in the final stage of processing.  Either way it's still been a month.  

[Johnboy777]

I just spoke to a rep at TurboTax, she confirmed California is lagging with accepting returns.  

[globerries]

My federal income tax was also accepted 2/12 but not CA as of today it is still pending.    I haven't had an issue like this in previous years and have used TurboTax previously as well.  Has anyone had their CA return accepted yet?

[mslatinlady]

When you spoke to the Turbutax rep, what was the explanation for California lagging in accepting returns??  So many have efiled and so many of us are still PENDING with California.  We are afraid our returns weren't efiled properly !!!