Generally, the IRS will process and issue refunds within 21 days. In some situations, your refund may take longer to be processed by the IRS or your financial institution. See the IRS Refunds page for details.

Where's My Refund? provides an actual personalized refund date as soon as the IRS processes your tax return and approves your refund. The website is updated no more than once every 24 hours, usually over night.

Refund Delays

Due to requirements under the PATH act, refunds for returns with Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) are not processed or issued until mid-February each year. If a return is filed before the middle of February, the return may show as accepted, but refunds will be held. The Where's My Refund page for these returns will not be updated until after February 15th. See Refund Timing for more information.

Some tax returns will also take longer to process if it:

• Includes errors
• Is incomplete
• Needs further review, in general
• Is affected by identity theft or fraud
• Includes Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation

Refund Issues

In some cases, a refund will not be direct deposited. The IRS will issue a paper-check for one of the following reasons:

• The account was not listed as belonging to the taxpayer or spouse. The IRS can only deposit refunds electronically into accounts in your own name, your spouse's name or in a joint account.
• A financial institution rejected the direct deposit.
• The IRS can’t deposit more than three electronic refunds into a single financial account.

If your refund is different than you expected, all or part of your refund may have been used (offset) to pay off past-due federal tax, state income tax, state unemployment compensation debts, child support, spousal support, or other federal nontax debts, such as student loans. To find out if you may have an offset or if you have questions about an offset, contact the agency to which you owe the debt. See Tax Topic 203 for more information about refund offsets.

If you received an erroneous refund, see Tax Topic 161 for more information.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the webpage or document at the time it is accessed.