Don't Mess With Taxes

Our state tax refund is in our bank account!

Confused because we got a state tax refund and live in Texas, one of seven states with no income tax? (For state tax sticklers, Tennessee and New Hampshire don't tax wage income, but they do tax other types of earnings.)

As regular readers know from my previous bitching moaning whining posts, the hubby gets some money from a company based in Georgia and the Peach State tax statutes say it can collect taxes on earnings paid from Georgia sources.

So his employer withholds the state taxes and we file the state return and we await the state refund.

We were lucky. The Georgia money showed up late last week. In many states, delaying refunds is now standard operating procedure.

Check with your state tax office: If you also are expecting a refund from a state tax collector, most have online search options that let you check on your tax cash status.

You can find a link to your state's revenue office's website at the ol' blog's State Tax Departments page.

This time of year, the state tax collectors probably will have a link to their refund tracking system on their home page.

Tracking federal refunds: As for any money back from the IRS, if you e-filed, your tax software program probably told you when you might expect to see that refund.

If your software didn't do that or you overlooked that feature, we've got the info for you in this nifty IRS Refund Cycle Chart for folks who e-filed. If didn't send your 1040 electronically, add a couple of weeks to the refund date range in the IRS refund schedule table.

One of the nice things about the chart is that its refund predictions run into October for those folks who got a filing extension.

It also includes a couple of toll-free numbers -- 1-800-829-1954 or 1-800-829-4477 -- if you prefer to deal with an automated phone system to find your refund's whereabouts.

However, since you're reading this online, I suspect you'll want to get a more precise refund delivery date by checking the IRS' online search engine Where's My Refund?

On our 2009 federal filing, we also are getting a few bucks back from Uncle Sam (yay home energy improvements tax credit!). Since our state refund is here and we filed both returns simultaneously, I just used the IRS tracking program to see where that money might be.

It tells me the hubby and I should expect our IRS money smack dab in the middle of the range shown on the chart. We'll see.

• When to expect your refund
• State Tax Departments
• State tax refund delays are now the norm
• Kansans: e-file or wait 16 weeks for your tax refunds
• 9 states of no-tax note ... sort of
• Taking taxes directly from bank accounts

Want to tell your friends about this blog post? Click the Tweet This or Digg This buttons below or use the Share This icon to spread the word via e-mail, Facebook and other popular applications. Thanks!