Oddly long time period from federal tax filing ACCEPTED with two state returns still PENDING

[ATLDawg]

TurboTax help states, "e-filed returns generally sit in Pending status for 24–48 hours before coming back as either Accepted or Rejected. Sometimes state returns stay in Pending for several days or even longer."

But I'm a bit concerned this year.  I filed my taxes early, submitting federal and two states' returns around Feb 5. My federal taxes were accepted by Feb 13...not long after the IRS began processing.  However, two states (Georgia and Alabama) are both still showing as "pending" five days after my federal return was processed.

I've been using TurboTax for 13 years. There's always a lag of 1-2 days between federal and state acceptance. However, this is the first year I've seen a lag that's approaching a week.

If others are experiencing the same, please tell me that this is related to COVID or new state security processes or something OTHER THAN a TurboTax glitch. 😮

[DavidD66 · Accepted solution]

State tax returns are not transmitted to the state until after the Federal return has been accepted.  In addition, state e-files take longer than federal to be processed.  State returns are transmitted to the IRS, and then the IRS forwards the return on to the state.  The bottleneck may be with the  IRS.  As long as your return is not "rejected" there is nothing to be concerned about at this point. 

I am aware of similar state delays occurring with tax preparers using professional software products.  You are not an isolated incident. 

[ATLDawg]

One of the state returns (Georgia) did in fact get accepted a day or so after my post, so that tracks with your response.

I am wondering why the other return (Alabama) is still "pending" as we approach 2 weeks out from when my federal return was accepted.  Maybe I should be asking if others have experienced hang-ups specific to Alabama this year...😐

At what point would it make sense to actually get worried that a state return is still pending?

[TerukoL]

Some state returns will stay Pending for several days or even longer, especially with the IRS filing delay and backlog this tax season due to COVID closing the offices and leaving the IRS with very few employees working for the past year. The IRS has not stated how long returns can or will remain in pending status.

Please click IRS Operations During COVID-19: Mission-critical functions continue to learn more.