Tax refund: How to track your money’s status and when the IRS will send it to you

Tax Day — now May 17 — is less than a month away. If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, now’s the time to do it. If you have filed, you’ve probably been checking your 2020 tax return and refund status. There’s two tools to keep track of updates and they’re similar to the tools used fortracking the status ofstimulus checks and “plus-up payments.”

Both tools can let you know whether the IRS received your tax return and if it’s started processing it yet. You can also find out when your refund is sent — especially if you’re waiting on missing stimulus money you claimed as a Recovery Rebate Credit.

We’ll show you how to track down your refund and when to expect it. If you have kids, you’ll want to know about child tax credit payments, including how much money you’ll get. Here’s what we know about a fourth stimulus check, who needs to file an amended tax form and COVID credits and benefits you could get this year. This story was recently updated. 

How do I track my 2020 tax refund?

You need several things on hand to track the status of your tax refund: your Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, filing status — single, married or head of household — and exact refund amount in whole dollars, which can be found on your tax return. Also, make sure it’s been at least 24 hours before you try tracking your refund.

Using the IRS tool Where’s My Refund, enter your Social Security number or ITIN, your filing status and your exact refund amount, then press Send. If you entered your information correctly, you’ll be taken to a page that shows your refund status. If not, you may be asked to verify your personal tax data and try again. If all the information looks correct, you’ll need to enter the date you filed your taxes, along with whether you filed electronically or on paper.

There’s also a mobile app, called IRS2Go, that checks your tax refund status. The IRS updates the data in this tool overnight, so if you don’t see a status change after 24 hours or more, check back the following day.

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How long until my tax refund arrives?

The IRS says it issues most tax refunds within 21 days, but many people get their refunds much sooner. However, this year, the IRS is reportedly facing delays complicated by the fact that it had to send out third stimulus checks at the same time (here’s more on stimulus checks and tax season 2020). But now that most stimulus payments have been made, the IRS should be switching gears to processing tax returns.

If there are any errors, it might take the agency longer to process and issue your tax refund. The same goes for people who filed a claim for an earned income tax credit or the child tax credit (here’s who qualifies for the child tax credit).