Tax season 2024: How to track the status of your tax refund

The IRS offers a tool called “Where’s My Refund.” This allows taxpayers to check the status of their refund after providing their Social Security Number, the refund total, and their tax filing status.

Information on the status of one’s refund should be available within 24 hours of submitting an electronic refund or within the day that the IRS receives a paper refund in the mail. The earlier you file the sooner you will receive the result of the filing.

There are three steps within the process that taxpayers will be able to track their refund through: return received, refund approved, and refund sent. Each of these is self-explanatory for the stage the refund is at. However there could be other information on the website explaining what the IRS is doing if they are still considering your return.

Using the tool can be very helpful to those who may have made a mistake on the return and for that reason have not been sent their refund. The tool can alert taxpayers to filing errors so that they can quickly correct them and resubmit their updated return.

For those who have not seen any changes to their filing status and filed a paper return, the IRS offers a help line which can be reached at 1-800- 829-4477.

How soon can a response be expected?

Typically the IRS is able to distribute a tax refund within 21 days so long as the return is filed electronically. Those who file with paper may have to wait up to six months to receive their refund. Providing the IRS with direct deposit information, rather than an address to receive a physical check, can speed up receiving the refund.