How to check your federal IRS tax refund status
April 15th may be a few weeks away, but I’m guessing some of you have already filed your tax return. We, as a matter of fact, just finished our tax return last week. For the second year in a row, we are getting a small refund. (As an aside, we have a large nonrefundable tax credit that is taunting me. Our tax liability wasn’t high enough to use much of it, so there it sits…)
Whether you are getting a large or small refund this year, you are probably anxious to receive it — I know I am! Did you know you can check with the IRS to find out what the status of your federal tax refund is?
How? I am so glad you asked….
Simple, web-based IRS tool lets you check your federal tax refund’s status.
Considering the complicated tax code, I think it is amazing that this tool is called, quite simply,”Where’s my refund?” Anyway, you will need to provide your social security number, filing status, and exact — please note “exact” — refund amount in order for your request to be processed.
You can even use the official smartphone app of the IRS (IRS2Go) to check the status of your refund AND find free tax preparation assistance (if you qualify). You will need to provide the same information to check your refund status whether you use the app or the online tool. The app also provides various hotline numbers to call for various tax issues.
Don’t have a computer or a smartphone? You can also call the IRS to check the status. However, the IRS phone representatives can only research your refund status if 21 days have passed since you e-filed, or six weeks since you filed a paper return, or if their web-based tool directs you to call them. Plus, they might be a little busy around tax time.
Our tax refund will be direct-deposited, but even if you are getting a regular check, this method still works.
When can you start checking the status of your tax refund?
If you e-file, you can check after 24 hours. If you do a paper-based return, wait four weeks. The IRS states that the online tool is only updated once every 24 hours, so there is no need to check it more often. In general, you can expect your refund about 21 days after you e-file. As I mentioned above, if you haven’t received your refund within this time frame, it’s time to give the IRS a call.
If you’re using direct deposit, check with your bank regularly to confirm the refund has been deposited. The IRS will not notify you that the check has been deposited.
Want your money more quickly next year?
To receive your tax refund more quickly, the IRS recommends e-filing and direct deposit. Even if you choose to do a paper return, make sure your return is free of errors and has your correct mailing address, so the return can be processed — and the money deposited to your checking account! — as soon as possible.
Want a refund next year? Or not…
If you have always received a refund but want to see if you now have the discipline to save on your own, consider adjusting your W-4 so that less is withheld from your paycheck. (The IRS withholding calculator can help you calculate how much you should have withheld.) This will, in essence, spread your refund out over the course of a year. If you have the discipline to use this money wisely, you will have use of it much earlier than if you had waited for a refund.
On the other hand, if a tax refund is a method of forced saving you can appreciate, consider having more withheld from your paycheck.
As always, do what works for you. And may your check arrive soon!
[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article appeared on March 10, 2010.]
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There are 48 comments to "How to check your federal IRS tax refund status".
On the flip side– once you’re on your journey towards financial independence you’ll have to start paying estimated taxes throughout the year. I’m glad dividends are taxed at 15%, but man estimated taxes are annoying.
Meanwhile, I expect my tax bill to be about $4,000. Sigh.
I feel like the journey toward financial independence always goes through people learning how to spend their tax money. If they are clever about it, they can invest it into a high earning account.
Nicole, I know what you mean, estimated taxes are really annoying.
Yeah I thought I was doing a great job of keeping my money and owing a little bit at tax time – but this year we got penalized for under-withholding. Can’t win I guess.
Minimizing my return worked fine when my only income was my job. Once I started earning enough investment income to make a difference on my taxes, minimizing my return came way too close to “paying lots of penalties” for my comfort.
Then last year hubby started doing 1099 contract work for a few companies. Thanks to the stock market not generating much income the extra withholding covered his self-employment tax, but… it looks like we’ll have to do estimated payments too.
I am getting about $1500 back this year (between state and federal) which will be enough to pay off almost 50% of my remaining credit card debt. Works for me! I don’t think I would’ve set aside $57 from each paycheck throughout the year otherwise. I am sticking with the “withhold enough to get a refund” strategy for probably the next two years, to help build my emergency fund, and then we’ll see.
Why let the government borrow your money for free? I get it (the whole forced savings thing), but let’s implement some discipline…or better yet, set it up so the savings is done automatically, and get your money working for you! Great point, great post.
I haven’t gotten a tax refund for over a decade. I always owe money at tax time. I guess that means I’m doing things right, but geez, I still feel over-taxed.
The “Make Work Pay Stimulus Tax Credit” for 2009 and 2010 causes dual earner households subject to Federal Income Tax Withholding to receive a smaller federal income tax refund. Couples that have historically received a small refund will be underpaid for those tax years.
The reduced withholding is applied to every wage earner. It assumes that a wage earner with a married exemption qualifies for the full $800 credit. This means that a husband and wife are underwithheld becauae the credit is counted twice in their withholdings. As a result they receive an $800 surprise when they file their federal income tax return.
Dyou have posts about how to NOT get a tax refund back? How to get it all as you make it? I want to know more about this!
OK wise guys, the government is “borrowing my money for free”. I choose to ignore the anti-government sentiment inherent in those remarks. Instead, here’s a challenge for you: SHOW ME THE MONEY! I make about $34K a year. How much am I actually losing in earned interest by just letting the government pay me back at the end of the year? You can use ING’s current rates if you want.
Isn’t it amazing how a refund seems so great when, if fact, it means you’ve been loaning the government money for free? I think a refund is great if you haven’t learned how to control your money very well. If you have, a refund is kind of a slap in the face.
After owing for a few years, I don’t really mind getting a refund. This year, I was especially worried about underpaying so I had extra money held for my last five paychecks. I ended up getting all of that back and a tiny bit more, but I felt more comfortable doing it that way.
It’s really difficult to figure out how much to have withheld when you are paid hourly and have more than one job. I make a different amount every single pay period and last year that was for three different jobs (one full-time and two part-time). I can never predict what extra amount should be withheld from federal and state.
“Meanwhile, I expect my tax bill to be about $4,000. Sigh.”
Tyler,
It sounds like you need to buy a house and have a few children. That will rectify your problem. LOL
Sam’s got a point. If you got a $1200 refund, you could’ve invested that money in a savings account or paid down debt and saved a little.
If you had instead kept the $100 each month, a savings account at 2% interest would have gotten you 16 cents in Jan + 33 cents in Feb all the way up to $2 in December… so you’re losing out on maybe $15 of interest in a year.
If you have high interest debt you’d save more by paying it down each month instead of all at once, but the point is if you’re the kind of person that has accumulated high interest debt you might be the kind of person who needs a little help learning to set money aside anyway.
Before marriage, I had my withholding carefully calculated (ha! it was pure luck) so that I owed the state a little bit and got about that same amount back from the Feds. This happened several years in a row.
After we started filing jointly, I usually had tax over-withheld just a bit … the overpayments went to reduce the total bill based on DH’s self-employment. No more refunds for me, boo!
Estimated taxes: frankly, I wish he paid them every month. This quarterly crap is a giant pain. My advice to DH (for YEARS, and sadly, disregarded) has been to transfer, every week, 30% of his deposits into a tax account. That way he’d always be covered. It’s not like we don’t know how much the tax bill is going to be.
For me, I aim to get back a very small refund. I don’t want to owe the government money (but who does?), but also don’t want to loan the government a large chunk of change. The last couple of years, my refund has been around the $100 range, which makes me happy.
One thing the “Where’s My Refund” app won’t do is tell you that your refund was returned to the IRS because you typed your bank account number wrong and added an extra digit. That’s what I did. After spending 30 minutes on hold, I found that out and that the IRS will mail my refund in 3-4 weeks.
My refund is largish this year because my job loss mid-year and I wound up having no tax liability.
Very handy dandy. I recently did my taxes, and it looks like I’m HOPEFULLY getting my big fat refund in two days. Cool…
Sarah, if a $1200 refund (mine are usually lower than that) would only get me about $15 a year in a high interest savings account, I’ll just go on letting the government borrow my money so I don’t miscalculate and wind up owing them instead. Getting an April Surprise is a terrible thing and I think I’ll just spare myself the headache, thank you.
You had me until you mentioned putting the money into a high-interest savings account..where are those these days? 🙂
Seriously…my HSBC account just dropped again to 1.10%. “High-interest” my butt!
No tax refund for me again this year. Uncle Sam gets plenty of my money, so I just don’t see the need to lend him any more than absolutely necessary.
This year we were supposed to get a child tax credit of $2000.00. After “adjustments” were made, our total credit amounted to $100.00. Thank you Obama…and he said he wasn’t going to tax the middle class, but we owe more this year than we EVER have.
Chris– you got more back in your paycheck during the year. They adjusted withholding amounts.
Yeah, I also don’t get what’s so bad about loaning the government some money for a year, and feel like all the “you gave the government an interest-free loan” is a POV that’s as thoroughly thought through as “homes always go up in value.” I do WANT the government to run, after all…
@sam I totally agree. After having to pay more thank $4k the past two years (new jobs, changes in residence, changes in self-employment) I really miss the days of getting that much back, and if it cost me even $50 in interest, well I pay that much in parking tickets every month so I just can’t get too worked up about it.
O.K. – with interest rates as low as they are, it makes sense to have a large amount of your taxes withheld so you receive a large refund. I just got a refund for $1,900 dollars – and I saved about $1,100 hundred of it. Thats WAY more than I would have saved if that same $1,900 had been given to me throughout the year. But if interest rates are high, AND your a good saver, then yeah, make your refund as close to zero as you can.
Sam (#10):
I made 11k last year, and I got $850 back from overpaying and EITC and “making work pay.” If I had been able to keep the entire amount in ING the whole year, I would have made a whopping $13. No thanks.
I currently make a variable income, and I have for the last several years. I’d much rather overpay and get it back than owe money. I used to be glad to write a small check to the government, but, you’re right — at small incomes with small amounts back, you’re really not losing that much interest, and it’s nicer than having to pay out at the end of the year. As long as my refund isn’t massively substantial (several thousand), I’d rather just get a bit back. Heck, even if my refund is several thousand, I’ll just throw it into savings and get to earn my interest then. The federal government can enjoy my $13.
The IRS never initiates emails, so beware of any emails you received claiming to be from the IRS.
I do not begrudge people for withholding more and then getting a refund. If that is a savings plan, it might not be the best savings plan, but at least it is a plan. Last year they could have make some good money in the stock market with those extra funds, but if you are going to put it in a savings account, they would have gotten about 1.5% – certainly no windfall.
I was not aware of the site where you could check your refund, thanks for the tip
This whole idea of “lending the government money for free” is old news. Haven’t we gone over this a million times? 90% of the population that tries to adjust their withholdings to “even out” over the course of the year will either a) mess it up and wind up owing money or b) spend the money as they get it.
I would the think the more sensible advice is to live without the money (pay yourself first only let the government hold it for you) for a year and then get it paid out to you. They can keep the $13.23 in interest if they want.
I get a smallish refund (usually less than $1,500) and that’s okay with me. I’m a single filer. One year, I changed my withholding so that I wouldn’t get a refund and ended up owing Federal and New York state taxes. It was a really nasty shock! I’d rather get the refund and call it a day.
Can’t agree more with those saying the $14 dollars is not worth the reward. There are 2 reasons I agree.
1. $15 dollars is a small insurance cost to ensure you don’t have to dip into your savings to pay for taxes. You can plan for your taxes but small changes in December can impact your return. For me if my charitable givings slip in December I can lose substantial portions of my refund. This could be because I forget to mail a check because of some family emergency, vacations, or weather.
2. $15 dollars is not worth my time it takes to properly manage withholdings. I would have to look at it in December before the year starts, June of the actual year, and November of the actual year to alter my December withholding. This means calculating my expected tax return 3 times. I don’t like doing it 1 time a year.
We just received $13,693.00 back from Federal & State combined, and honestly I don’t mind.
As far as “loaning the government ‘interest free’ money” is concerned, I am not the least bit bothered. I would like to think that the government is putting that money to work in more “meaningful” and/or beneficial ways that will benefit society as a whole than I ever would.
The way I look at it is that I really don’t need all that extra money each week so why not let the government hold on to it, maybe do something good with it, then in February/March when they “pay me back” I dump it into our IRAs and get the personal benefit at that point.
Besides, the government gave my wife and I $2,500.00 back towards her education expenses in 2009. So if I am getting tax credits like this I will continue to try and help out and lend them $263/week.
Perhaps you should be thanking taxpayers for the educational assistance that your wife received, not the government. I don’t understand it when people credit the government as their source of funds.
I make sure always to not overpay at the state level. I would much rather owe the state of California than have them owe me. They have been known to issue IOU statements rather than actual checks in the past.
I get a decent refund however, it’s not because I’m dim.
I get the Earned Income credit, child care credit and two others I can’t remember right now. Just because someone gets a check doesn’t mean they deserve the type of remarks here.
And truth be told, with the amount of other annual stuff I have due between February & April I’d rather accidentally “loan” the govt a few hundred bucks then be scrambling to get some extra $ together by April 15. I always figure in something of a pad since paycheck withholding is not always accurate – especially if your pay check fluctuates a lot.
And my refund is smaller this year too, the some of the credits were smaller & my home improvements (new door insulation, etc – done in such a way so they were claimable) weren’t allowed because of a change in the code – thanks Obama! What a great “change”
And yes I know it probably wasn’t him – it was probably his buddies in Congress or the house but he’s the figure head of the bunch.
I’m with those who say it’s not worth it to them to “adjust to 0”. Me too! $15 (+/-) wouldn’t begin to cover the time it would take me to understand and properly adjust my withholdings so I didn’t get a refund AND didn’t owe taxes.
I’d rather have a personal savings and debt repayment plan throughout the year, and then take my tax refund and toss it onto debt.
It’s not just owing taxes that worries me. I have trouble shaking the idea that owing underpayment penalties is the same as overdraft penalties — proof I screwed up. 🙁
Sam, Sarah, Leah, etc – it’s not just about the (admittedly small) interest, it’s about access. If you need new tires in October, the government isn’t going to give you an advance on your refund to pay for it. If you had been saving that money throughout the year instead, you’d have it on hand when you need it.
#1 – $30 isn’t gonna pay for tires unless you get a used one from the junk yard.
#2 – The govt doesn’t give cash advances on their tax credits.
#3 – Tires don’t cost that much. If your sports car or SUV does take big expensive tires that you can’t afford then you should get a more economical vehicle that you can afford to maintain.
#4 – you should have an emergency fund for something like tires.
#5 – tires don’t just “boop” go bad. Unless you take a nail in the side wall they can be patched. And you can tell by your tread if your gonna need new ones any time soon so it is a planned event.
While in some ways this is all splitting hairs, in another way you gotta be practical & use your head. If you don’t have enough taken out you can be penalized & it’s not like we’re talking about oodles of extra money being withheld.
If you want to pay the govt a $500 fee (like I did 3 yrs ago) for not having enough prepaid because of “what ifs” then more power to ya. I’d rather not pay fee’s and get a check back from them.
What about using what you would have withheld to pay down high interest credit card debt throughout the year?
I know putting the money in a high yield savings account would not save you much, but I would think that you could save a lot more in finance charges, so long as you start saving towards the end of the year to have enough to pay the tax bill in April. Any thoughts?
I work for Your Financial Watchdog.com and this is my opinion. If you are willing to let someone else use your money, which in this case is the IRS in the form of a large tax refund, then you truly don’t understand a couple of basic concepts that are key to the accumulation of wealth.
First is the time value of money. A small amount of money multiplied over a long period of time eventually becomes a large amounts of money. People that procrastinate and don’t start investing because they don’t think their small investment will amount to anything do not get this. Interest earning interest or dividends earning dividends, capital gains, etc, is the foundation of accumulating wealth. Start as soon as you can with whatever amount that you can. You can’t start if someone else has your monty.
Second, the phrase “Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves” is as true today as when Ben Franklin first uttered it. Ben Franklin also said that “A penny saved is a penny earned”. Don’t dismiss any amount of money as too small to account for.
Accumulating wealth requires a change in both mind and action. The time value of money and being frugal are the cornerstones and time tested when it comes to accumulating wealth.
Sam – fair enough on #2. Some people can’t adjust their withholding below $0, if they get back more than they paid in credits. But everything else…
#3/5 – The tires were just an example. Fill in any other potentially unexpected expense. I’m not sure where you got the $30 in point #1; all the tax preparation services say the average refund is $2400. That’s a lot of money! As for #4 – yes, you should have an EF. That’s the whole point of not letting the government hold your money all year, so you can put it in the EF and have it at YOUR disposal when you need it…for emergencies.
I don’t think anyone is saying “you are a failure unless you have a zero refund” or even that everyone should be striving to pay huge tax bills in April, and possibly getting hit with underpayment penalties. But if you are consistently getting 4-figure refunds, you can adjust your withholding to get a *smaller* refund, and have more money for that EF (or debt) during the year.
It can be done. Our federal tax bill this year was $89. One year it was $14.
Ironically enough, JD, I just realized that the linked post in the first sentence about how you used to love getting a big tax refund was how I found GRS! Someone sent it to me as a justification for why they always got a big refund. I’m glad to see you’ve changed your ways 🙂
It is doubtful that anyone is going to read this, but for what it is worth, there *is* a good reason to leave a substantial amount in the kitty with the IRS.
The concept is simple: CYA
IF the IRS has the money in their hands, and an audit finds they overpaid you a refund based upon an aggressive (but not criminal) position that you took, they can only come after you for the money that YOU OWE them and can *only* put penalties and interest on amounts YOU OWE them unless criminal fraud was involved. In short, that questionable deduction that might be ok, but Liberty Tax would not take for you is something you should take if you think it is correct to do so. When the IRS chooses who to audit, they look for two things: Criminal Fraud (and *hopefully* you are not agressive enough to clearly claim what you should not) and significant amounts that will cover the expense of the audit. The penalties and interest are *very* much part of that equation.
If they normally could get enough to make challenging a deduction worthwhile because of the penalty and interest they may get as well worthwhile, the fact that they can *only* recover the basic amount *and* it does *not* result in any further cash in their hands may allow your agressive position to stand. For them, it just is not worth it to chase you down.
Besides which, if they have your money long enough (turning it over year to year in their hands) you *will* get interest on it eventually. The IRS did just that to me once, sent me back a check with interest. They almost seemed to be *angry* about it, although I am sure that was just a misperception on my part.
So there is a lot of good “conventional” wisdom that is expressed here, but sometimes, that “out of the box” thinking can get you even farther. Get a good grip on who you are and how you opperate and take the advice that best fits *your* mode of opperation!
;'{P~~~
I filed our taxes electronically at the tax service. He called 2-3 days later after the 25th of Ja. when we filed, and said you gave my money to someone else already so we supplied copies of our SS cards and DL’s to prove we are indeed the rightful recipients. How much longer before you trace where you sent MY money and arrest the scum? Levenworth is too good . Guantanomo bay comes to mind. There is iver $2000 in the wrong hands.
When would I get my federal taxes back
Interesting. I’ll make note of this website/tool so I can check on mine once my accountant has finished e-filing it. 🙂
I’m curious…is anyone else getting charged around $400 at H&R block for taxes…..? According to sources I’ve found online, the average of tax prep seems to be anywhere from $100 to $300. I know price in part has to do with complexity and also whether or not the deadline is fast approaching. Nonetheless that amount seems really expensive.