Tax Refunds: How to Check Your Status

Do you know how to check the status of your tax refunds? Today we will discover more about this topic and understand better.

Checking the status of your tax refund is a crucial step in the tax-filing process, providing insight into when you can expect to receive any money owed to you by the government.

In the U.S. taxes are very important and inevitable, you can run from them, especially since they are a huge part of the economic framework of the country and essential to public services.

Understanding how to navigate the process of checking your tax refund status is key to unlocking this awaited financial benefit.

In the U.S. the IRS, Internal Revenue Services are responsible to manage the nation’s tax system, dealing with credits and deductions.

What are tax refunds?

A tax refund is a reimbursement issued by a government tax authority to a taxpayer who has overpaid their taxes.

It happens when the IRS is returning the excess of income that was withheld or paid during the tax year.

A lot of taxpayers receive their money and if the government can’t locate them, the money becomes unclaimed funds until you redeem them. If you as a taxpayer ended up paying more in taxes throughout the year than you are owed some tax refunds.

And this can happen in various scenarios, like when employers end up withholding too much money from your paycheck during the year.

Or when you make the estimated tax payments instead of the exact amount of your tax bill.

So we need to understand that this isn’t free money that the government is giving to you, it’s money that you are owed because of the overpaid taxes during the year.

How to check your status for tax refunds?

For you to check your status for tax refunds, you will prefer to use the tool of ‘Where’s my refunds?’ from the IRS.

They allow you to track the status of your federal tax refund, the information will be available 24 hours after e-filing, but if it was a paper filing it will take until 4 weeks to be available on the website.

With the tool you will receive the estimated date of your refund and the exact amount also.

You can also access your tax return electronically, especially if you filed the documents online.

And before checking your status for tax refunds, you need some documents in hand, like your Social Security number, filing status and the exact amount you’ll receive.

Enter your Social Security Number (or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number), your filing status, and the exact amount of your refund as shown on your tax return.

You can check in two different ways, if it’s federal you need to check in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and if the authority was from the state, you’ll need to find it on the website they have.

To check if you have tax refunds from federal sources, you can use an online source, like the IRS ‘Where’s my Refund?’. The tool will display your refund status. It may show as “Received,” “Approved,” or “Sent.”

Alternatively, you can check your refund status by downloading the IRS2Go app available for mobile devices with Play Store or Apple Store.

Another way to check your status for tax refunds is by calling the IRS automated phone service, just dial the number 1-800-829-1954.

And if you want to check in your state tax refunds, you will need to go into the state’s tax authority website, so you can contact them after.

Understanding refund status meaning

If you used the IRS to tax refunds you will need to understand how and what the status means after checking them.

If it’s ‘received’, it means the IRS already has your tax return with them, and if it’s saying ‘approved’, it will mean that the refund is on the way to your bank account.

And for the last ‘sent’ in the IRS website it’s meant that the Internal Revenue Services has sent your tax refunds, and you will receive it soon.

Always use the official IRS website or the IRS2Go app to check your refund status. Be cautious about providing personal information on unofficial websites to avoid potential scams.

Also, the IRS it’s updated usually overnight, so you need to check the tool once a day. Checking more frequently won’t yield real-time updates.

Monitoring the status of your tax refund is a crucial aspect of the tax-filing process in the United States.

The journey from filing your tax return to receiving a refund involves several steps, and staying informed about the progress can provide financial clarity and peace of mind.

Utilizing the IRS’s “Where’s My Refund?” the tool simplifies this process. As technology advances, the IRS2Go app offers an additional convenient option for checking your refund status on the go.

Daniel 18 de March de 2024