Don’t stress! You won’t miss this flight.
Have you ever walked into an airport and realized you and everyone around you seem to be in a rush? Well, tax filers tend to mimic the same anxious energy, especially those trying to figure out their tax refund status.
We understand that like the airport checking luggage-security-shoes-off whirlwind, tax filing is also something you don’t do every day and can be pretty stressful. Actually, filing your taxes is the hardest part though so give yourself a pat on the back, sit back and await your refund.
What status updates should I look out for?
Whether you are a RapidTax customer or not, you’ll probably use the IRS “Where’s My Refund?” tool. Before checking your refund status, you’ll want to recognize and know the meaning of the following status updates:
- Return Received or Accepted
- Refund Approved
- Refund Sent
- Your tax return is still being processed. A refund date will be provided when available.
What does Return ‘Received’ or ‘Accepted’ mean?
The IRS updates you with “We have accepted your tax return and it is being processed”. This is solely to update you that your return was successfully received by the IRS. This status update does not mean your return was approved. It simply means the IRS has it and it is in line to be reviewed and processed.
- The Return Received status may remain longer than you were expecting. You may have friends who had this status displayed on their page for only a few days and yours has remained much longer. Don’t panic, it happens.
What does ‘Refund Approved’ mean?
The IRS updates you with ” Your refund has been approved”. This means that your return was processed successfully and the estimated refund amount was approved by the IRS. You’re one step closer to getting that refund!
- This refund status is the second stage of the IRS refund updates and means you have nothing to worry about.
What does ‘Refund Sent’ mean?
Once the IRS updates you that your refund has been sent, the deal is sealed. You should be receiving your refund via check or direct deposit. In most cases, you’ll even be issued an approximate date to expect your money to arrive.
- If you had your tax refund direct deposited, it may take your bank or financial institution 1-5 business days to deposit the tax refund money into your account. If instead, you opted to have your tax refund sent to you in the mail, by check, you should expect to wait much longer.
What does ‘Your tax return is still being processed. A refund date will be provided when available ‘ mean?
Although it may drive you crazy waiting for your refund, this status could just mean that the IRS hasn’t approved your refund as yet and it reviewing your return.
- Most refunds are issued in less than 21 days. Additional review may be the case if you claim credits such as the Additional Child Tax Credit, or Earned Income Credit. This ensures that you’re receiving the correct refund. This process may take longer, but it will change eventually.
What does Tax Topic 152 mean?
If you are using the Where’s My Refund tool and see a generic message accompanied by “Tax Topic 152“, consider this IRS tax jargon. In short, your return is still in the processing stage. Tax Topic 152 is simply a lengthy internet document listing the ways you are able to receive your refund. Although applicable, chances are that by this stage of the game, you’ve already chosen whether or not you’d like a check or direct deposit.
If you notice your tax refund status is not appearing on the IRS tool, be sure you are entering the correct information. If it still doesn’t work, contact your tax preparer.
Last year I was audited but my audited was approved and I receive my refund I was trying to see will it delay my refund this year and will I have to wait my whole 21 days
Hi Tlady,
A random audit will typically not have much of an effect on the processing speed for the following year. Keep in mind that there are some exceptions. One instance in particular is if you are audited for identity theft. For the following year, extra safety precautions may be taken by the IRS for your tax return.
Help! My taxes were accepted February 3rd. The the day i was getting my money direct deposited, the IRS said ‘take active 2111___’. After I spoke to the IRS, they said everything was fine. Recently I checked and it says ‘no refund found, check the info’. What’s going on?
Hi Tess,
I strongly suggest contacting the IRS directly with this information that they are providing you on their website. Take a look at the IRS contact information. You will notice that the fourth option down allows you to contact a local IRS office. I suggest doing this instead of contacting the toll-free number.
Tax return mailed on April 2015. In June 2015, I did not receive my refund, I have called the IRS, the employee told me that tax report was processing and that it might have taken few weeks before the refund was issued. Since then I have been checking the status via the online tool “Where is my refund?” provided on the IRS website.
In August 2015 I received a letter from IRS stating that it might have taken longer to process my report. After that I called again the IRS and the employee told me that the refund should have been issued in December 2015, the latest.
On December 2015, since I did not receive any refund amount and the online status was still on “Processing”, I decided to call again the IRS. The employee now told me that it might have taken up to 12 months since the date IRS started processing my tax report (that was June 2015), hence I should have expected my refund by June 2016, 6 months later from the previous communication.
Few days ago I checked the status of my refund online and now it says that the system is not able to find my report. I called the number again and after I gave to the recorded system my data I got the same answer, that my report, apparently, is not in their system. I read the following message:
“We cannot provide any information about your refund. Be sure to:
verify your filing date;
check with your tax preparer
If you filed a complete and accurate tax return, your refund should be issued within six weeks of the received date. Processing may take longer under certain circumstances.”
Does someone have an idea of what is going on?!? Thank you.
Hi Giovanni,
Based on the details you have provided, it seems as though the IRS has done some sort of reset for the new year. I know that you are probably beyond frustrated with calling the IRS (as you should be!), but I do suggest giving them a call again to see what is going on with your report. In order to receive a live person, try giving your local IRS office a call. HERE is the link to find your local office phone number. Since the IRS is primarily run via technology in order to keep track of such a large volume of ‘customers’, it could definitely be a glitch in their system that is not allowing you to access an update on your report from last year.
Electronically filed return was rejected stating someone already filed with same tax i.d. so we had to file on paper with a bunch of extra paperwork proving identity, we faxed the papers to a number provided & actually had to refill again due to an error. We were informed that due to the identity theft issue may take longer.
Irs2go for a very long time would say still being processed & a refund date will be provided when available. We recently called & spoke with someone & they said it was done & should be sent soon. That was a month ago (nw november!!!) Now when I check Irs2go it keeps saying the information is incorrect….
Hi Brits,
It seems as if you got the short end of the stick when dealing with the IRS this past tax season. I strongly suggest contacting them again directly and not necessary relying on the IRS2go tool, seeing as it has been giving you false information. You may want to contact your local IRS office instead of the main toll free phone number. I do hope this works out for you.
I e filed 2013 taxes 2 days ago. (Yes very late) where’s my refund is showing the received it today. My question is…can I order transcripts on this file once it is showing as approved on where’s my refund? I am getting a home loan and this is the last thing we are waiting on.
Hi Crystal,
According to the IRS, it takes about 3 weeks after e-filing before a transcript becomes available. If you mailed your tax return, it takes about 6 weeks. If you are unable to wait that long, you may want to contact the IRS directly to see if they offer an expedited service.