Where’s your refund? Here’s how to find out

If you have a tax refund coming, you can normally expect to see a deposit arrive in your bank account within 21 days after filing your electronic return — that's one of the advantages of electronic tax filings with direct deposit. But, there can be delays.

The best way to check the status of your refund is to use the IRS tool “Where's My Refund?” (tinyurl.com/39hn4zcz) or the IRS2Go mobile app (tinyurl.com/59s3zwtr). Look for “refund approved.” (Be aware that the tool may tell you to contact the IRS. You may also be contacted by mail if the IRS needs more information to process your tax return.)

The site usually updates information within 24 hours following the IRS acknowledging receipt of the taxpayer's e-filed return. If you filed a paper return, however, it will take longer, perhaps six weeks or more before the refund status appears on the tool.

If you filed your return electronically more than three weeks ago and have not received your refund, you might be wondering what happened.

What are the possible reasons for a delay?

According to the IRS (tinyurl.com/yu8nv2w7), if a tax return has errors, is affected by identity theft or fraud, or is incomplete, it might be subject to a manual review, which can delay its processing. More information about identify theft can be found at the IRS' Identity Theft Central (tinyurl.com/y3m5b7ft).

Other reasons for longer processing time?

⏩ The return requires a correction to the amount for the Child Tax Credit or Recovery Rebate credit.

⏩ The return includes a claim for an Earned Income Tax Credit or an Additional Child Tax Credit.

⏩ The return includes Form 8379, “Injured Spouse Allocation” (tinyurl.com/2wsw2sub), which can take up to 14 weeks to process.

Some errors can delay processing for weeks, even 13 or more. Processing amended returns can take more than 20 weeks, according to the IRS (tinyurl.com/yckwuuhd).

At some point, you might want to call the IRS or visit an IRS office. Should you? That depends on timing. IRS phone and walk-in representatives can research the status of a refund only if it has been 21 days or more since it was filed electronically, or six weeks or more since a tax return was mailed.

The IRS has offered an important piece of good advice for those who have filed their tax returns and are awaiting refunds: don't “rely on receiving a refund by a certain date, especially when making major purchases or paying bills. Some returns may require additional review and may take longer.”

Good advice indeed in any tax year, but especially the 2021 tax year, with the Child

Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit creating potential tax return errors. Also keep in mind that the IRS is still working through a backlog that arose during the past two tax seasons, as detailed in a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report on IRS operations (tinyurl.com/5erup7cf ). The IRS noted on its “IRS Operations During COVID-19” page that “As of April 1, 2022, we had 7.1 million unprocessed individual returns which include returns received before 2022, and new tax year 2021 returns.”

So far, the IRS has processed more than 91 million 2021 returns as of April 1, with the great majority (nearly 88 million) being e-filed (tinyurl.com/36t65tw9). Refunds affected more than 63 million tax returns, most (over 60 million) being direct-deposit refunds, with an average refund of $3,226. More than 160 million individual tax returns are expected to be filed for the 2021 tax year (tinyurl.com/2p9a33z8).

Julie Jason, JD, LLM, a personal money manager (Jackson, Grant of Stamford) and author, welcomes your questions/comments (readers@juliejason.com). Her awards include the 2021 Clarion Award, symbolizing excellence in clear, concise communications. Her latest book, a curated collection of Julie’s columns, is “Retire Securely: Insights on Money Management From an Award-Winning Financial Columnist.” To hear Julie speak, visit juliejason.com/events.