Where Is My NY State Tax Refund?

Find out when you should receive your 2012 New York state tax refund

Are you still waiting on a tax refund from New York state? You can check the status of your state refund online by using the Income Tax Refund Status tool on the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance website. If you prefer to use the phone you can also check the status of your refund by calling 518-457-5149.

These days you can expect your federal refund from the IRS in under twenty-one days. In some cases they are even fast enough to get your money out in a week. State operations are not quite so sophisticated.

New York says to expect your refund six to eight weeks after they receive your return. As with federal taxes, the fastest way to get your refund is by e-filing your return and then requesting your refund by direct deposit. Mailing your return in to the tax office and requesting a paper check will both slow down the refund process.

If you really want to know when you’ll get your refund the moment that information become available, you can sign up to receive an email from New York State as soon as they process your return. The message will include the amount of your refund, the expected payment date, and the payment method. In order to receive this email, you have to sign up through the online services.

The best advice I can give when it comes to tax refunds is just to be patient – this advice holds true for your federal taxes but it’s even more true at the state level. Government isn’t known as a model of efficiency. Checking your refund status twelve times a day isn’t going to get your money any faster, but it might make the state’s refund status tool crash.

Just as a reminder for all of you who haven’t filed yet, the deadline for filing your 2012 New York state tax return in April 15, 2013, the same as it is for your federal return. File your taxes with RapidTax now and you can take care of your state and federal return at the same time.

Photo via JefferyTurner on Flickr.

248 Replies to “Where Is My NY State Tax Refund?”

  1. i filed my taxes on 2/1/13 and its 5/7 havent recieved my sate taxes. first its says under review 60…days then 90 days . now it says its under final review WTF. i want my money

  2. On another site there have been a few people that have it 90 days now and it never progressed to the next step …..just still says 90 days for them …… this is like never ending

  3. walter, I agree with you this is so wrong to do to people and I too cant wait to get out of new York………………………

  4. I have mailed out my NY state tax return on Feb.2….and still no check or response….12 weeks is way to long for a return…when i owed the state even a couple dollars they were sending me letters weekly demanding payment….This state is a mess…I cant wait to move elsewhere.

    1. Very typical of New York …they hang onto your money when they owe it to you , but want to be paid immediately if it’s the other way around

  5. Hi Jake,

    I sent my NY tax return in a few days after yours. I checked the “refund status” almost every week and initially, it said “no information….”. I waited and gave it a few more weeks before I checked again. Around early April, the “refund status” was also telling me that “THE INFO I ENTERED DOES NOT MATCH THEIR RECORDS…” and was asking me to verify my SS and exact amount of refund. It has been like that since. I thought that I was the only one that got this strange message and it is a consolation to me that I am not alone. I called them 3 times to make sure they have received my return and each time I was told that it was being processed and there was no problem with my tax return. The advice each time was to check back in 2 weeks. It will be 90 days come May 13th.

    Isn’t this awful? If we owe them money, they are so quick to get it from us and add the interest if not paid within a certain amount of time. Now that they owe us money (and it is our money not theirs), they can delay it and it is legal in some sense because they are the government. It is just not right but how do we fight “city hall”?

    If you want to speak to a alive person call the info center at (518) 457-5181 although whoever you speak to will not be able to give you any info on when you will be receiving your refund as was my experience. Follow the prompt #3 for personal income tax questions; again #3 for All others; then #2 for All personal questions. I will probably call them again when my 90th day comes up. It has been extremely frustrating!

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