TULSA, Okla. — Unless you’re one of the few who filed for an extension, tax season is now finally behind you.
Or is it?
“I won’t know until I get it.”
Tamara Parnell sits on pins and needles, she tells us, until her refund actually comes in.
Too many questions … too many worries … wander through her mind.
“If I made a mistake, or if I put the right numbers in, or what the outcome will be.”
Financial experts say the top two questions they hear now are when can I expect my refund, and two, how much will my refund be?
“In terms of when people can expect to get their refund, it depends on whether you filed electronically or on paper,” Jack Caporal, the lead researcher for the financial advice site The Motley Fool told us.
If you did e-file, expect your federal refund within three weeks.
Paper filers may wait up to eight weeks.
For state returns, electronic refunds in Oklahoma can take about six weeks … and the old school paper refund about twice that long..
As for the exact amount of your refund, or how much you actually owed? That depends, too, on whether you used tax software, which is generally quite accurate, or pen and paper.
“There are some instances if you’re entering information manually, filing by paper, inaccuracies could lead to you owing a bit more or getting a bit less in the refund than you expected,” Caporal says.
So, in that case, you won’t know your exact refund or amount due until the IRS receives and processes your return, and possibly detects any inaccuracies.
As for Tamara, she used software, so as long as she didn’t punch in any wrong numbers, her refund estimate should be right on, and she should have it before the end of the month.
Contact the Problem Solvers:
- 918-748-1502
- problemsolvers@kjrh.com
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