Claim your pending IRS payments before the deadline tomorrow: How to track your tax refund status?

The IRS has approved the progress of your tax return, ensuring that you can track your refund status and receive a customized refund date.

IRS unclaimed payments: Start monitoring the progress of your return to find out if you have an unclaimed tax refund. 4 weeks after mailing a paper return, or 24 hours after the IRS receives your electronically submitted return. When your return has been processed and your refund approved, use the IRS’s “Where’s My Refund?” service to get a customized refund date.

Through three phases—Return Received, Return Approved, and Refund Sent—this tool will display the progress of your return. To access “Where’s My Refund?” you must provide your Social Security number, filing status, and the precise whole dollar amount of your expected refund.

The IRS typically issues refunds within 21 calendar days. Delays, though, could arise from some returns needing more time for scrutiny. Your most recent refund status information is available through the “Where’s My Refund?” function.

There may be some reasons behind the wait if your return was received more than 21 days ago and you haven’t gotten your money yet.

$1 Billion in Unclaimed Checks and Credits from the IRS: Deadline Approaching Soon

It typically shows the current status of the return you submitted most recently throughout the previous two tax years.

A date will be given to you by “Where’s My Refund?” once your return is handled and your refund is authorized.

The program monitors your return from the moment it is received and shows whether or not your refund has been issued. The IRS has your return and is processing it if your status indicates receipt.

Your refund is being prepared for mailing to you or transfer to your bank if it appears to be approved. For direct deposits, wait to check with your bank five days after the IRS mails the refund. Refunds mailed may not show up for several weeks.

IRS unclaimed payments: How much money might the IRS owe you?

Not including tax credits, the average unclaimed tax refund per person is $932. The IRS won’t be distributing this money out of the blue, though. Should you be due an old refund, you must file back taxes to receive it before the deadline.

Postmarking of those back taxes for tax year 2020 is due by May 17. According to Money, if you miss this deadline, your refund will vanish; the IRS says that a tax refund formally “becomes property of the U.S. Treasury” after three years of it lying unclaimed.

The pandemic forced the tax filing deadline for 2020 taxes into May 2021, although the date for claiming previous tax refunds is usually in April. So this year, the deadline is May 17.

When Will I Get My Tax Refund? IRS Refund Process and Delay Reasons

States waiting to be claimed with the biggest median tax refunds are:

Pennsylvania: $1,031
New York: $1,029
Maryland: $991
Rhode Island: $986
New Hampshire: $982
Idaho: $761

Refunding money to some taxpayers may be much more than that. For 2020, a lot of people with low and moderate incomes can also qualify for the earned income tax credit. The EITC that year might be as high as $6,660, contingent upon the income and dependents of the household.

A refundable tax credit for up to the entire amount of the stimulus payments that year, the recovery rebate credit may also be available to persons who did not receive their entire $1,200 stimulus check from March 2020 or their $600 check from December 2020.

The deadline for claiming either of those credits is the same.

These tax credits are refundable and typically part of your entire tax refund; however, the IRS did not include tax credits in figuring the average unclaimed refund amount. (That implies that some people may be losing out on more than $9,000 by missing the deadline.)