Where Is My NY State Tax Refund?

Find out when you should receive your 2012 New York state tax refund

Are you still waiting on a tax refund from New York state? You can check the status of your state refund online by using the Income Tax Refund Status tool on the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance website. If you prefer to use the phone you can also check the status of your refund by calling 518-457-5149.

These days you can expect your federal refund from the IRS in under twenty-one days. In some cases they are even fast enough to get your money out in a week. State operations are not quite so sophisticated.

New York says to expect your refund six to eight weeks after they receive your return. As with federal taxes, the fastest way to get your refund is by e-filing your return and then requesting your refund by direct deposit. Mailing your return in to the tax office and requesting a paper check will both slow down the refund process.

If you really want to know when you’ll get your refund the moment that information become available, you can sign up to receive an email from New York State as soon as they process your return. The message will include the amount of your refund, the expected payment date, and the payment method. In order to receive this email, you have to sign up through the online services.

The best advice I can give when it comes to tax refunds is just to be patient – this advice holds true for your federal taxes but it’s even more true at the state level. Government isn’t known as a model of efficiency. Checking your refund status twelve times a day isn’t going to get your money any faster, but it might make the state’s refund status tool crash.

Just as a reminder for all of you who haven’t filed yet, the deadline for filing your 2012 New York state tax return in April 15, 2013, the same as it is for your federal return. File your taxes with RapidTax now and you can take care of your state and federal return at the same time.

Photo via JefferyTurner on Flickr.

248 Replies to “Where Is My NY State Tax Refund?”

  1. I efiled both Federal and NYS returns on 1/11/13, Fed was accepted early on 1/28/13 and DD received on 2/5/13. NYS accepted on 2/4/13, online refund status continuously stated “Information Not Available Using This Service”, finally called on Monday and was told I was in the final stages of processing and should receive my refund in 2-4 weeks. Just got an email stating my “refund has been issued”, checked my online account and was given a date of 4/5/13. So hopefully all goes well and it comes on time, or even a bit early 🙂

  2. David, Claire and Timmy – Although it’s a very frustrating situation, I am relieved to hear that other people are experiencing the same message. I mailed my return on January 27th and am still getting the “no information” message. I spoke to someone at the Tax department and they stated that they did not start inputting the information into the system until the end of January because they were waiting for a program update that caused a delay. He told me not to worry and he is confident they have it and that something should be showing up in the system in about 2 weeks or so which would put the date at approximately March 28th. My only guess is that those that filed early wound up at the bottom of the pile as they began creating stacks to finally input. I am still a bit worried but we shall see what happens. If nothing shows up I will call a few days before April 15th and ask if I should resend. Good luck.

  3. I have filed my NYS tax return since Feb 20th and still no word, and have been going online, and keep getting the same update, what is going on? I have never gone through this before. I have a plan vacation, and was looking forward to my money, and my vacation is only weeks away. The state knows how to take money from you, but giving back is so hard for them to do. We as a people can’t do anything about it. So unfair.

  4. I e filed my NYS tax return on Feb 11th and received a dd date of march 1st from the NYS website and it is now march 16th and still nothing! Anyone else having this issue? It is really worrying me…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *