Where’s My Federal Tax Refund?

You filed your tax return and you’re expecting a refund. You have just one question and you want the answer now – Where’s My Tax Refund? Whether you split your refund among several accounts, opted for direct deposit to one account or asked IRS to mail you a check, you can track your refund through this secure Web site. You can get tax refund information even if you filed just to request the telephone excise tax refund.

To get to your personal refund information, be ready to enter your:

• Social Security Number (or IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number)
• Filing status (Single, Married Filing Joint Return, Married Filing Separate Return, Head of Household, or Qualifying Widow(er))
• Exact refund amount shown on your return

If you don’t receive your refund within 28 days from the original IRS mailing date shown on Where’s My Refund?, you can start a refund trace online.

If Where’s My Refund? shows that IRS was unable to deliver your refund, you can change your address online. Where’s My Refund? will prompt you when these features are available for your situation.

Where’s My Virginia State Tax Refund?

• Online Lookup — Check the status of your tax refund online. You will need to enter your SSN, the tax year of the return you filed and the amount of the refund you are expecting.
• Phone Lookup — Call (804) 367-2486 to check the status of your refund 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will need to enter your SSN and the amount of the refund you are expecting.
• Debt Collection — Did you receive a partial refund? Learn about the Virginia Setoff Debt Collection Act and the U.S. Department of Treasury Offset Program (TOP).
• Unclaimed Property — Did you not receive a past state tax refund? Contact Customer Service regarding refunds, which may have never been claimed or may have stale-dated. For individuals, call (804) 367-8031, and for businesses, call (804) 367-8037.

How Long will It Take to Get My Refund

• If you e-Filed your tax return your refund will generally be processed in up to 4 weeks.
• If you filed your tax return on paper, your refund will generally be processed within 8 weeks. Please note, if you mailed your tax return using Certified Mail it could take up to 3 additional weeks.

Regardless of whether you file your return electronically or on paper, if you request a paper tax refund check instead of direct deposit, please add another week to your wait time. Consider using e-File and have your refund deposited directly into your bank account if you would like to receive your refund faster.

Reasons your Refund may be Delayed

• If you requested your tax refund be deposited into your bank account but you (or your tax preparer) entered your bank account numbers incorrectly into your tax preparation software, or we keyed your bank account numbers incorrectly from your paper tax return, the bank will not be able to process the deposit. When this occurs the bank notifies us and we will manually re-issue your refund as a check. This process could take up to 2 weeks between the time we receive notification from the bank and when you receive the paper check.
• As noted above, to reduce the risk of refund fraud, the Department uses various processes to validate refunds prior to issuance.  These additional processes could delay the receipt of your refund.

Reasons your Refund may be Reduced

Before issuing any tax refunds we first verify you do not owe the Commonwealth of Virginia for any outstanding debts:

• If you owe the Department for previous tax years we will withhold all or part of your tax refund and apply it to your outstanding tax bill(s). If this occurs the Department will send you a letter identifying the specific bill(s) you owe and how much of your tax refund was applied.
• If you owe a debt to other agencies of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Virginia local governments, the Virginia court system or the Internal Revenue Service we will withhold all or part of any remaining tax refund to help pay these debts. If this occurs the specific agency will send you a letter identifying the debt you owe and how much of your refund was applied to the debt. The Code of Virginia Setoff Debt Collection Act, Sections 58.1-520 through 58.1-535, authorizes and governs this program.
• If your refund is reduced to satisfy any debt owed to the Commonwealth you will be issued a refund check for the remaining balance. This check will be mailed to the most recent address provided on your tax return.