The tax season ended last month and you haven’t yet received your income tax return.
Now what?
The IRS this spring processed more than 140 million federal income tax returns as of April 24, according to the IRS’ latest available tax-fling statistics. So while a majority of Americans have received a return, others have not. The IRS points to several reasons that may have delayed a refund.
Here’s what to know if you are still looking for your 2025 income tax return, and how you can track your pending funds:
Why a delay?
Yes, taxes were due on April 15, unless you filed for a six-month extension. While more than 140 million returns were processed as of April 24, another 1.35 million submitted returns were not yet completed, according to IRS data.
The IRS warned It would take longer to review your 2025 tax return if submitted documents contained errors, or if you applied for additional tax credits.
The IRS outlined five broad that could delay a tax refund:
According to New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance, each state return goes through several steps of processing. A simple, straightforward tax return will process faster. But “returns requesting certain credits that are an attractive target for fraud will likely require additional review by one or more department-review systems.”
In short, additional review creates delays.
Timing of income tax returns
If you file electronically and your return is accurate and complete, it should take less than three weeks to receive your refund – a move that is expedited when you choose direct deposit, according to the IRS.
Some tax returns, however, require additional review that take longer to process.
Issues that cause your refund to be delayed according to the IRS include:
Financial resource Kiplinger created a breakdown of the IRS tax refund schedule:
How can I check my refund status?
To check the status of your refund, use the “Where’s My Refund?” tools for federal tax refunds or go to the IRS2Go app. Information is updated once a day, overnight.
To do so, you’ll need your:
Also be mindful that the wait for your tax return is based on when the IRS has received your return and entered it into the system, which may be several days after you submitted the return electronically or several weeks after mailing a paper return and IRS workers manually entered your information.
New Yorkers can track their state income tax refund status through New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance and its filing resource center. You must know the refund amount requested to use this online tool.
Average 2026 tax refund tops $3,200
The average 2026 refund is more than $300 higher than the average refund in the same timeframe last year, IRS data show. According to the IRS, as April 24, the average tax refund was $3,268 — an 11% increase over the $2,945 average from the same point in 2025.
Overall, the revenue service refunded $312.882 billion to tax filers in 2026, a 17.8% increase over the $265.654 billion refunded to this point last year.
Contributing: USA Today network
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Still no tax refund? Here’s why and how to check the status
Reporting by Victoria E. Freile, New York Connect Team / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
