A grapevine for taxpayers, by taxpayers.
Ask all of your tax refund questions.
The most frequently asked question we have is when will the IRS WMR update and what day are tax refund deposits. Use our calendar to find out what day you can expect to receive your tax refund.
🔥 Updates: Advance Child Tax Credit Tools to Update and Unenroll
The IRS will begin accepting tax returns on February 12, 2021.
Most tax preparers will allow you to enter and submit your tax return beginning the first week of January 2021. You don’t need to wait for the IRS to start accepting tax returns to start, but you must have the proper forms and paperwork. Some forms are not available until mid January and some even later. When you submit your return before the IRS begins processing, it will sit in a “queue” and be held until the date that the IRS will officially accept tax returns. If you e-file early and it sits in queue, your return may be sent to the IRS early in a test batch. This has resulted in early direct deposits in the past, but also major glitches because they are tests after all.
2021 Refund Cycle Chart
The most recent tax refund cycle charts have already been published. The official IRS tax refund cycle chart has been eliminated and replaced with an IRS Information Guidelines for the Tax Preparation Community publication and the IRS says the best way to check the status of your refund is using the Where’s My Refund tool. However, various websites with refund calendars for the 2021 tax season (2020 tax year) have been updated with 2021 direct deposit and check mailing dates.
IRS Refund Schedule Charts typically show that early filers whose returns are accepted before the end of January can anticipate a tax refund direct deposit as early as the first week of February. The day that IRS deposits refunds varies but we notice trends that help you determine the time and days WMR updates and when your tax return is processed. This is an explanation and FAQ about when the IRS updates WMR and Transcripts.
The refund calendar by the College Investor is a good reference which has been updated for 2021 here: When To Expect My Tax Refund.
So what is the tax advocate place for anyway? The don’t do what they say that’s for sure. It’s a joke. Another useless arm of the govmnt to waste money and pay people to do nothing. The lady was like a Karen on a bad bend- plus, something was wrong with her line I couldn’t hear or understand her and she blamed it on me when obviously she had issue all day that’s why when she got to me she was all bent out of shape redused to such a state I’m glad I recorded it bc I guarantee with the dog barking in the background and her screaming at me she won’t last long so they can be even slower but I’m reporting anyway, not that they care. Im down for the next insurrection. I’m down for whatever if they don’t give me my money soon.
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So, I efileed February 25th. HOH, 1 dependant, 1 w-2. Simple a. F I thought. I’ve been through it all.. 2 letters allowing 60 days, ID verified online in May, I recieved all 3 stimulus payments , no child tax credit bc my dependant turned 18. I’ve called every month, told various things – I won’t even bore you all with it esp bc it was all b. S. Every time. Called advocate line, that was a mistake. Rude and nasty lady have me a lecture about how there is no income reported for me from a employer. I have a w-2 and paycheck stubs from same employer I’ve had for 7 years. She transferede to someone else who told me I don’t need to send anything in, and to NOT call again before Jan 8th. My player laughed when I told him the IRS says they didn’t report income for me. I feel sick.
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So, I edited February 25th. HOH, 1 dependant, 1 w-2. Simple a. F I thought. I’ve been through it all.. 2 letters allowing 60 days, ID verified online in May, I recieved all 3 stimulus payments , no child tax credit bc my dependant turned 18. I’ve called every month, told various things – I won’t even bore you all with it esp bc it was all b. S. Every time. Called advocate line, that was a mistake. Rude and nasty lady have me a lecture about how there is no income reported for me from a employer. I have a w-2 and paycheck stubs from same employer I’ve had for 7 years. She transferede to someone else who told me I don’t need to send anything in, and to NOT call again before Jan 8th. My player laughed when I told him the IRS says they didn’t report income for me. I feel sick.
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@WhatIfNever: mine was HOH with one dependent
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@ItsFree2BeKind: Just adding this to provide/seek solace of human empathy, I guess. I’m getting concerned about how to file 2021 taxes if we end 2021 and we’re still owed 2020 unemployment adjustment refund. Do we somehow get to claim it then? Feels so powerless having to trust someone at IRS to do this adjustment on our behalf, if we could file an amended return then at least we’d be able to track status of amended return. Calling just leads to long voicemail tree that ends with being cut off no ability to leave a message or get a call back, just told to try again later. I have to work for a living between 7am-7pm. Keeping big $ from poor people and leaving them powerless and in the dark and unable to help themselves seems particularly cruel.
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@Miss Storm: can you tell me if you were among the ‘simplest returns’ for the unemployment adjustment? My 2 college age kids filed in Feb simple returns and still nothing! got transcript which shows nothing! And whenever news says the ORS sent more unemployment refunds they say they started with the simplest returns and have now moved onto more complex and joint returns. Sooo scared they got overlooked somehow, need hope that others with SIMPLEreturns are also still waiting for the IRS adjustment and refunds
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Can anyone tell me if they too filed a simplest tax return in 2020 yet still haven’t received the unemployment adjustment refund from the IRS? I have two college-age kids both e-filed single tax returns before the new law exempted $10,200 of their 2020 unemployment. Both are owed adjustments the IRS says they will do automatically, so neither filed any amended return but every time there’s news saying the IRS has sent out more unemployment refunds they say the IRS processed the simplest returns first and have now moved onto the more complicated and joint returns. So what happened with my kids’? If they are simplest why haven’t theirs been adjusted? The fear is they have somehow been LOST? One got a transcript sent to him and it just shows NOTHING except his originally filed return. No hint the IRS has looked at or adjusted anything for him. And if they NEVER receive their proper refunds how might that affect them filing their 2021 tax returns???
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