There could be various reasons why you haven’t received your refund despite filed your tax return weeks ago. For example, instead of receiving an electronic refund directly into your bank account, you may have preferred to receive a paper check.
However, if you haven’t received your money after more than 21 days of filing your tax return, you should check the status of your refund using the IRS refund tracker site.
Here is what you need to check if you haven’t received your refund
The bulk of taxpayers have to file their tax forms by April 15. Unless, of course, you live in one of these states or have filed a tax extension. Although the IRS has been providing tax refunds for months, the money return process takes time.
Using the IRS’ Where’s My Refund? tracker tool, you may easily verify your tax refund and see if it was disallowed due to mistakes. To use the IRS’s tracking capabilities, you must provide your Taxpayer Identification Number (SSN), filing status (head of household, married, or single), and the amount of your return in whole dollars.
Visit the IRS website’s Get Refund Status page, enter your personal information, then click Submit. If you do not see a page reflecting the status of your return, you may be asked to validate your personal tax information and try again.
If everything appears to be in order, you will need to enter the date of your tax return and whether you filed electronically or on paper. When tracking a tax refund online, allow at least 24 hours or up to 4 weeks if you sent your return.
Can you track your tax return from previous years?
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), all receivers can view their tax refunds from past years. The Where’s My Refund feature provides the IRS’s federal return records for the past two years. To find previous years’ return information, you must log into your IRS online account.
From there, you may see your payment history, the total amount you owe, vital information regarding your most recent tax return, IRS notices, and your address on file.
Furthermore, IRS2Go is a smartphone app that lets you check the status of your tax refund. The app allows you to see if your return was accepted and if a return was issued. Remember that you’ll need your Social Security number, filing status, and projected return amount to log in. Check back the next day if you don’t see a change in your status because the IRS updates the app overnight.
Why will some recipients see a ‘Tax Topic 152’ or receive an IRS error message?
While the Where’s My Refund function normally shows the statuses Sent, Received, or Approved, some users may receive multiple alerts. One of the most common is Tax Topic 152, which signifies that your refund is on its way but has not yet been authorized or dispatched. The letter simply links users to an IRS FAQ website topic page with information on the various types of tax refunds and when they are due.
Due to additional fraud protection measures, taxpayers requesting the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit may get an automated message explaining the delay. The IRS is now examining your tax return if it includes Tax Topic 151.
Your tax return will be withheld to cover the amount the agency believes you owe, or it may be required to confirm specific credits or dependents. After approximately four weeks, you will get a notification from the IRS outlining the measures you must take to correct the status.